Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra believes the lack of first-class cricket will be a spanner in the works for Bhuvneshwar Kumar as far as selection in 2027 ODI World Cup is concerned.
Kumar was in splendid form in IPL 2026 as he scalped 28 wickets in 16 matches for Royal Challengers Bengaluru and played a key role in taking the franchise to glory.
Furthermore, Kumar bagged 17 wickets in 14 matches of IPL 2025 and once again played a handy role in RCB’s success. However, Chopra reckons the fast bowler from Uttar Pradesh should be in the scheme of things in the ODI set up if he is to be part of the World Cup.
Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel, “One thing goes against Bhuvi. I love him to bits, and I want him to play for India again, but when you don’t play Ranji, your workload becomes limited. There are a handful of matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In ODI cricket, you have to bowl 10 overs and field for 50 overs in a match. It’s a lot of workload.”
“It’s not easy in a tournament like the World Cup where you have to keep playing continuously. Not only the World Cup, but you will have to be a part of every ODI game from a year earlier. You will have to start playing him from now on,” he observed.
Chopra added that Kumar needs at least an year to be ready for the ODI showpiece.
“He is not a bad option, but it will be a mistake unless we give him at least one year to get ready. If you pick someone for the 50-over World Cup based on him bowling four overs in the two months of the IPL and a month of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, no matter how good that person is, it will be wrong,” Chopra observed.
On the other hand, the renowned commentator acknowledged that Mohammed Shami has found success in the first-class cricket but believes Bhuvneshwar Kumar is ahead of the Bengal seamer if we do man-to-man marking on the basis of IPL performances.
“It’s the same thing for Shami, although he has played the Ranji Trophy and picked up 37 wickets. He is going to play the Duleep Trophy now as well. So Shami has a slightly better case to make, but the truth is that if we do man-to-man marking in the IPL, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is ahead of him in that respect,” he said.
Chopra believes the selectors would not pick both pacers but might pick one ahead of the next ODI World Cup.
“My understanding is that the selectors, captain, and coach won’t take both of them. Maximum one of them can come, and who that one will be, we will come to know in the next four to six months. By New Zealand, we will have an answer as to which of them is going to come or if no one is going to come, because if neither of them is taken to New Zealand, then that’s it,” Chopra observed.
Shami will be seen in action in the Duleep Trophy for East Zone.
