Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Krunal Pandya return to India colours

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Krunal Pandya are set to don the India colours once again after being named in the squad for the upcoming Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, which begins on October 30. The tournament, a six-over-a-side competition, will be held at the Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground in Kowloon from October 30 to November 1, 2026, and will feature 12 teams.

Shashank Singh, Nitish Rana, T Natarajan, Rahul Tewatia and Rahul Tripathi are the other players selected to represent India at the tournament.

India endured a disappointing campaign in the previous edition of the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes. They began with a two-run victory over arch-rivals Pakistan via the DLS method, but their campaign quickly unravelled as they lost their next four matches and crashed out of the competition. Their first defeat came against Kuwait by 27 runs, followed by a four-wicket loss to the United Arab Emirates.

India were then hammered by Nepal by 92 runs in their third fixture before suffering a 48-run defeat to Sri Lanka in their final game.

Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar's last appearance for India came on November 22, 2022, in a T20I fixture against New Zealand in Napier. His last ODI games came against South Africa in Paarl on January 21, 2022.

Bhuvneshwar has done well in the previous two IPL seasons and has been knocking on the doors of India selection in the shortest format of the game. The right-arm speedster claimed 17 wickets in 14 games for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2025 and played a key role in guiding them to their maiden title. He was simply phenomenal in the 19th edition of the tournament claiming 28 wickets in 16 matches as RCB clinched back to back titles.

Bowling allrounder Krunal Pandya also delivered an impressive performance for RCB, snaring 14 scalps in 16 games at an economy rate of 8.42.

India squad for the 2026 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes:

Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shashank Singh, Nitish Rana, T Natarajan, Rahul Tewatia, Rahul Tripathi.