Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been picked up by Uttar Pradesh for the first two matches of the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy following his recovery from a thigh injury, reported IANS.

Kumar had suffered a thigh injury during the Indian Premier League and was ruled out for six months. However, he made an expected recovery and was thus picked up in the squad. 

He will be flying to Alur (Bengaluru) from Delhi on Saturday along with Suresh Raina, who has come out of retirement to take part in the tournament. 

Although Kumar has been given an all-clear by the National Cricket Academy (NCA), UP has picked up seven bowlers along with seven standbys, in case the injury-prone bowler suffers another setback.

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The other pacers in the squad are Mohsin Khan, Ankit Rajpoot, Shivam Mavi, Aaquib Khan, Mohit Jangra, and Purnank Tyagi.

While the BCCI has asked teams to pick 20-member squads, UP has picked up 22 players. 

UP will play all the matches in Bengaluru and is in Group A along with Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Punjab, Railways and Tripura.