As India gears up for the grueling five-match Test series against England, starting January 25 in Hyderabad, veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar served a timely reminder to the BCCI selectors by picking a five-wicket haul on his return to First Class after six years.

Multiple injuries had cut short Bhuvneshwar’s promising 21-match Test career during which he boasts of four five-wicket hauls, including the six-fer in a Lord’s victory against England in 2014. His last appearance in Test whites was in South Africa during the 2018 tour in which he returned with 10 scalps.

However, continuous struggles with injuries dented his chances for a comeback in red ball cricket, and loss of rhythm on return to white ball cricket also meant he was always on the edge. Also the emergence of a new pace battery in red ball cricket, meant that the selectors could move on from the swing specialist from Uttar Pradesh.

On Friday, Bhuvi announced his return to FC cricket in spectacular fashion as he had the Bengal batters on their toes in the second round Ranji Trophy match against Uttar Pradesh at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur.

Bhuvi came up with stunning figures of 5 for 25 from his 13 overs to leave Bengal reeling at 95 for 5, and spearhead Uttar Pradesh’s counter attack after the home side was skittled out for mere 60 runs in their first innings after dense fog delayed the start of the proceedings.

The 33-year-old struck early with the new ball dismissing opener Sourav Paul (13) and Sudip Kumar Gharami (0) in a space of just three balls before getting Anustup Majumdar (12), captain Manoj Tiwary (3) and Abhishek Porel (12) as part of the same spell.

Earlier in the day, Mohammed Kaif starred for Bengal, picking four wickets while Suraj Sindhu Jaiwal and Ishan Porel shared five wickets between them to pack the UP team for 60 in just 20.5 overs. For the home side, only three batters reached the double digits, with Samarth Singh ending as the top-scorer with 13 runs.

While it would be premature to predict Bhuvi’s immediate return to international red-ball cricket with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar and Avesh Khan, producing the goods. And thus, only a consistent run in the country’s premier red-ball tournament, could force the selectors to consider his return.

Inclement weather plays spoilsport

Inclement weather in the northern and north-eastern parts of the country affected the conduct of the second round of the Ranji Trophy matches. The Elite Group C match between Tripura and Tamil Nadu was the worst-hit on the day with dense fog and later a slight drizzle forcing the umpires to call off the day without any action.

A number of other teams playing across various venues battled similar conditions, in Jammu, Guwahati, Mohali and Kanpur. At JKCA’s Hostel Ground, only six balls could be bowled in Delhi’s first innings against Jammu & Kashmir.

In Guwahati, it was slightly better as 37 overs were played during the match between the home side and Kerala before bad light forced the players off the field. During Punjab vs Railways at the PCA Ground, the visitors could only bat for 34 overs before the stumps were drawn early owing to bad light.

The situation was no different in the first round as multiple teams had ended up losing precious game time to the weather, raising questions on the timing of conducting the Ranji Trophy.

Similar questions were raised on the BCCI’s plans of hosting the T20I series opener between India and Afghanistan in Mohali, as the temperature dipped to single digits on Thursday.