'Hopefully in Future': Kuldeep Yadav Expects Rank Turners to Come Into Play During England Series

Defying the predictions, the pitches used for the first two Tests between India and England have turned out to be quite docile. While the strip in Hyderabad only became challenging by the fourth afternoon, the surface in Vizag offered little to nothing for the spinners.

It was being expected that India will lay out spin-friendly pitches which will assist their troika of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel. However, the pitches have been so far ‘sporting’.

Also Read: ‘Pat Cummins Will be Captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad’

Kuldeep reckons that such surfaces are good for cricket but that doesn’t mean that rank turners have been shunned completely.

“Overall, everything is important. The fast bowlers also come into play, like you saw in the last match. So (good wickets) are good for cricket,” Kuldeep told reporters in Rajkot on Tuesday.

The third Test will be held at the Saurashtra Cricket Stadium in Rajkot and the players of the two teams are gearing up for the clash with the series locked at one-all.

“It is not (the case) that you will not get to see rank turners going forward. Hopefully, in the future you will see (turning tracks),” Kuldeep said.

The 29-year-old says he’s not sure why ‘rank turners’ have been avoided.

“I have no idea. I haven’t played on rank turners. I did not play in the last series (Border-Gavaskar series in February-March last year) at home,” Kuldeep said.

“I do not know what our approach or thinking would be. It is basically the team management’s decision. Obviously, all of you also want to watch good cricket. For good cricket, it’s important (that the wickets are good),” he added.

When asked if he would like to play on a spin-friendly track, Kuldeep said, “I do not know that, I enjoy playing, whenever I get an opportunity to play, whether it is on a flat track or on a rank turner…batting too is important for us, not just spin bowling.”

“When we say it is going to be a batting (friendly) wicket, we do not mean that 700-800 runs will be scored here, but it will be a better wicket compared to playing on a rank turner,” he added.