Kuldeep Yadav, who was in the initial squad named for this series, was ignored from the starting XI in Chennai in India’s first Test against England, while Shahbaz Nadeem made it to the playing XI.

Kuldeep, who was hailed as India’s No.1 spinner in overseas Tests by Ravi Shastri two years ago, continued to be on the sidelines despite India’s spin department losing one more player to injury. Axar Patel was ruled out on the morning of the first Test with a knee injury, and Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar were added to the squad from the stand-by players’ list.

According to the pecking order, Kuldeep should have played ahead of Nadeem or Sundar, but the management went with Nadeem, perhaps encouraged by the success of Lasith Embuldeniya against England in Sri Lanka last month.

This isn’t the first time India have ignored Kuldeep from the playing XI despite having him around in the squad. In Australia in the last Test in Sydney, Washington Sundar, a net bowler, was handed a debut ahead of Kuldeep, who was in the main squad. The left-arm wrist spinner was the only player from the India squad (Aside from net bowler Kartik Tyagi) to not play a Test on their injury-ridden, yet successful, tour of Australia.

The recent omission has, however, triggered more reactions as Kuldeep was still picked in the main squad.

A few tried to rationalize with the decision given the team combination and the role each spinner is likely to play against this English line-up.

 

 

Related tags:

Axar PatelKuldeep YadavWashington SundarIndia v EnglandInternational CricketSeries Editorial