Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his surprise at India's decision to leave out Kuldeep Yadav for the second Test against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham. The former India batter believes that the pitch conditions warranted the inclusion of a specialist wrist-spinner and questioned the team management's reasoning, especially after India’s struggles with the ball in their defeat at Headingley.
India’s selection choices ahead of the second Test have drawn criticism. After conceding a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, the visitors opted to bolster their batting by including all-rounders Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar, rather than playing Kuldeep.
Given the lack of control shown by the Indian attack in the Headingley Test, his exclusion, especially on a surface expected to aid spin, has left several experts perplexed. India’s team balance has increasingly leaned towards longer batting line-ups, but critics argue that this has come at the cost of a wicket-taking option in the form of Kuldeep Yadav.
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Sunil Gavaskar Left Baffled by Kuldeep Yadav's Exclusion for Edgbaston Test
Gavaskar, speaking on the Sony Sports Network, analysed India’s team selection for the Edgbaston Test. In his view, the decision to exclude Kuldeep on a turning pitch defied logic. He highlighted that the need of the hour was a wicket-taking option, not additional batting depth.
"I'm a little baffled that Kuldeep wasn’t picked, because on a pitch like this, where everybody says there’s a little more turn," Gavaskar said as quoted on the Sony Sports Network.
He further criticised the idea of trying to fix a batting issue that did not exist in the first place. Gavaskar argued that there was no need to lengthen the batting line-up with lower-order options like Sundar or Reddy, especially when the top-order had already delivered in the opening Test of the series.
"If your top-order batters are not giving you the runs you expect, then Washington at 7 or Nitish Reddy at 8 won’t necessarily fix that, because those weren’t the batters who failed you in the first Test. You scored 830 runs. You didn’t score 380 in two innings — it was 830-plus. That’s a lot of runs."
"So, where you needed strengthening was in the wicket-taking department, not so much in the batting," Gavaskar opined.
Shubman Gill Offers Clarity on Kuldeep Yadav's Exclusion
"We were tempted to play Kuldeep but decided to add some depth to the batting," Gill said while explaining the team’s selection call at the toss.
With the series still wide open and India looking to bounce back from a comprehensive defeat, the non-selection of their premier wrist-spinner may continue to be scrutinised if the pitch at Edgbaston does offer turn and India’s bowling attack once again struggles.
Notably, England asked India to bat first after winning the toss. India made three changes to their playing XI. Akash Deep, Sundar and Reddy replace Jasprit Bumrah, Sai Sudharsan and Shardul Thakur.
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