Former cricketer and renowned commentator, Aakash Chopra, feels the call from the selectors to leave out wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav from India’s Test squad for the long tour of England was a “little harsh”.
Kuldeep found no favours in the extended Indian squad announced on Friday for the World Test Championship final against New Zealand and the five-Test series versus England in the UK.
For Chopra, the selectors and the management could’ve been more lenient towards a young spinner like Kuldeep, who hasn’t had a consistent run in the playing XI in the last couple of years.
“Personally, even Kuldeep Yadav’s exclusion is a little harsh. He has not played too much cricket, so to make the formal opinion that he does not make the cut, I feel that he is a little hard done by,”
“He bowled only one Test against England, on a raging turner. Picked up a couple of wickets at the end. Did not play the pink-ball Test. Now he is not playing the entire series.”
Not just the WTC final, but also the five-match Test series against England. In Covid times, you have the luxury of playing larger squads, so why not Kuldeep Yadav,”
Chopra said in an interaction with ESPNcricinfo.
Chopra thinks Kuldeep’s presence in the squad could’ve added a different dimension to the spin department, which boasts of four finger-spinners – Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar. Kuldeep’s wrist-spin, Chopra feels, would’ve been difficult to counter for the Kiwi and English batsmen in the forthcoming summer.
“You get as many as four-spin bowling options – Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, and Axar Patel – but all of them are finger-spinners. So, why not a wrist spinner against a side that tends to struggle against them,” he said.
In January 2019, just after his five-fer in the New Year’s Test at the SCG against Australia, head coach Ravi Shastri had hailed Kuldeep as India’s first-choice spinner overseas. However, despite that great vote of confidence, Kuldeep has since played only one more Test match for the country.
Kuldeep didn’t feature in the playing XI during the series against West Indies, South Africa, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Australia. And though he did play one game at home in February this year versus England, he warmed the benches for the majority of the four-Test series.
In the last few years, Kuldeep has seen the likes of Sundar, Axar and Shahbaz Nadeem play ahead of him in the Indian Test XI. Even Rahul Chahar made the Indian Test squad among the standbys for the England home series.
When Axar and Kuldeep played together on a raging turner in Chennai in February, the former emerged as clearly the more threatening bowler, whereas the latter struggled with his pace through the air. Axar only cemented his place as the third spinner in the pecking order by taking a bagful of wickets versus the visiting Englishmen.
From the sidelines, Kuldeep saw Axar scalp 27 England batsmen from his three Tests at an average of 10.59, including 4 five-wicket hauls. Axar left England’s right-hand batsmen in a tangle with his straighter ones with his ability to hide his arm-ball brilliantly among the away spinners.
Kuldeep’s decline since the start of 2019 has been quite alarming as he is neither there in the Test squad nor is the first-choice pick anymore in India’s limited-overs playing XI. Besides that, Kuldeep is not a guaranteed starter either for his Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders.
