3 players who can replace Prasidh Krishna as a standby player in India's squad for the WTC final

3. Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Many eyebrows were raised when Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s name was not there in the Indian Test squad. Some are even speculating that this could be the end of the road of the fast bowler’s Test career. He hasn’t played a red-ball match since January 2018 but remains a fine swing bowler who could have been deadly in English conditions. 

As a matter of fact, Bhuvneshwar was quite successful in England during the tour in 2014. He scored more than 250 runs and also took 19 wickets because of which he was even awarded the Player of the Series award. In 2018, he missed the tour due to injury and has not come back in the longer format since then. 

Injuries, workload management, and pandemic along with the emergence of young pacers like Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, Kumar fell out of favour in Tests. However, with the latest developments on Krishna, Bhuvneshwar could be picked as a reserve.

But, it will be interesting to see if the BCCI picks such a senior member as a reserve player. The presence of India’s entire pace attack could be one of the reasons why Kumar was kept out.