Kuldeep Yadav picked up a five-wicket haul for India in his last Test against England, which was played at HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala from March 7 to 9, but despite that, he failed to find a place in India’s playing XI for the first Test against Bangladesh, which India won by 280 runs on Sunday (September 22) at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Kuldeep’s exclusion from the playing XI came as a surprise for many former greats and experts of the game.
According to former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar, India should have played Kuldeep in the first Test, as the pitch would have offered immense support to spinners after the first one-and-a-half days.
He feels that the Indian team management should consider including Kuldeep in place of Akash Deep for the second and final Test of the series, which is set to start on September 27 at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur.
“I feel Kuldeep Yadav should not be dropped so easily. I believe that even if it was not a turner, India would have benefitted from playing Kuldeep Yadav in Chennai because the seamers will get help for just one or one-and-a-half days on an Indian pitch. It starts supporting spinners after that, and when you have a bowler like Kuldeep Yadav, you should not keep him out this easily,” Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.
“India should go with this approach in Kanpur. Even if it’s a green top and the sun is out, they should keep in mind that the green top will be just for the first few hours, and Siraj and Bumrah are enough for that. When you have three proven spinners, you should play all of them,” he added.
Kuldeep, who made his Test debut for India against Australia in Dharamsala on March 25, 2017, has 53 wickets to his name in 12 Tests played so far. In his only Test against Bangladesh, the 29-year-old spinner picked up a five-wicket haul in the first innings and finished the match with a total of eight wickets.
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