Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami were ignored once again as the selectors picked the squads for the white-ball series against West Indies. Bhuvneshwar, who shone in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) title win in IPL 2026, could have made his return in the absence of regulars. But the selectors kept him out. Shami, a genuine wicket-taker in ODIs, has been out of the team since the 2023 ODI World Cup final. Aakash Chopra has shared his take on their absence and said that they have to make peace with not getting selected and move on.
“So I think the writing is on the wall when you look at things from Shami and Bhuvi’s perspective. From the T20 perspective, you could have thought about Bhuvi. From the ODI perspective, you could have thought about Mohammed Shami. But you are not thinking about them,” Chopra said.
“And with so many teams, so much overlap, so many new players getting opportunities, Aqib Nabi being named in the ODI team, Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav coming into the T20 setup, and neither Bhuvi nor Shami being there — I think it tells us something. This is probably something we need to accept, make peace with and keep moving on. That’s what I think,” he added.
Bhuvneshwar hasn’t played for Team India since the New Zealand tour in 2022. He played his last Test against South Africa in 2018. Bhuvneshwar has 63 wickets in Tests, 141 wickets in ODIs and 90 wickets in T20Is.
The right-arm pacer continues to play for RCB in IPL and for Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket. He hasn’t played a first-class game since January 2024.
With 24 scalps, Shami finished the 2023 ODI World Cup as the highest wicket-taker. He suffered an injury after the World Cup and hasn’t been selected in Team India yet. He continues to play domestic cricket and IPL.
India’s squads for West Indies series
ODI squad
Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammad Nabi, Naman Dhir
T20I squad
Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan [WK], Sanju Samson [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav.
Disclaimer: This article summarizes a report by Aakash Chopra. While Times Now has verified the public data presented, the interpretations of ‘intent’ remain those of the creator.