5 Indian players for whom New Zealand home series could be the last chance to prove their worth

Well, after the debacle of the 2021 T20 World Cup, a new dawn has emerged in Indian cricket. The buoyant era of coach Ravi Shastri and captain Virat Kohli has finally concluded and a new team of successors has come on board. Perhaps to further surge up the stature of Indian cricket, a new robust leadership group has been established to clinch the upcoming three ICC events.

However, in that process, some players, who are standing on thin ice, are expected to get effaced from the system someday or the other. Like a lot of precision, prudence and transparency are being expected from the new team management, a flush out of ineffective players looks to be right on the cards.

Hence in this list, let’s check out 5 Indian players for whom the New Zealand series could be the last chance to prove their worth

1. Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Unfortunately, for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the year 2021 hasn’t been fruitful. Again the cricketer during the first half of 2021 was badly injured which in many ways has raised immense question marks on his fitness. Perhaps such a chronic fitness breakdown that has nearly eaten all his prime is now all set to cost Bhuvi his India cap.

In terms of his recent limited-overs performances, it looks like the 31-year old has completely lost his white-ball zeal. In IPL 2021, the ace pacer of SRH could only manage to pick mere 6 wickets from his 11 games that too at his highest ever IPL economy rate. Even the malfunction in the 2021 T20 World Cup has added to Bhuvi’s midlife cricket crisis.

However, a set of failures in the upcoming home series against NZ can become one of the last nails in the coffin. As the selectors now have a colossal pool of solid white-ball pacers, Bhuvi’s axing might become inevitable. For the team management, someone like Deepak Chahar would almost become a like-to-like replacement of Bhuvi and perhaps others like Mohammed Siraj, Avesh Khan or maybe even a Harshal Patel might seize his spot.

Or else, if the team maybe wants someone who can also largely contribute with the bat then Shardul Thakur certainly comes to the fore. All in all, maybe, in the long run, the rugged package of Avesh Khan might be the ideal fill-in for Bhuvneshwar.

As the 24-year old is a heavy scalper both in the powerplay and in death overs along with some handsome sets of variations in his sleeves, the young spearhead could become a strong contender. Hence with a towering tide of pacers already waiting to swallow Bhuvneshwar’s slot, certainly the medium-pacer is standing at the last resort to prove his worth.