Gautam Gambhir & Shubman Gill Name India’s Undroppable Player
Despite India losing the second ODI against England, the Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill-led thought tank kept Kuldeep on the bench at Lord’s, where the Men in Blue fell short of a difficult target and lost the series to the hosts.
Kuldeep Yadav, India’s left-arm chinaman bowler, who has been nominated to the India vs Sri Lanka Test squad for August, has been urged to be an automatic selection in the team’s playing XI.
Kuldeep last played in the India against Afghanistan one-day international series, when he appeared in only the second match and failed to capture a wicket, surrendering 42 runs in his 10-over performance.
Kuldeep Yadav is now in England, playing in the England One-Day Cup for Yorkshire. After being chosen to the Test squad, Kuldeep has received backing from former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta to be included in the India playing XI for the Sri Lanka visit.
Kuldeep was picked up for India’s ODI tour of England, which ended with a 2-1 defeat. Despite being in England, he did not play in any of the three ODIs, as the squad preferred all-rounders such as Axar Patel and Washington Sundar over a specialist spinner.
While Lord’s may have been an ideal hunting ground for Kuldeep, the management decided to go with an additional speed option after Washington Sundar was ruled out of the last ODI against England.
When the Indian team management, led by Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill, removed Kuldeep from the playing XI at Lord’s, many people, including former cricketer-turned-commentator Deep Dasgupta, found the decision unusual.
Now that Kuldeep has been picked to the Sri Lanka tour squad once more, Dasgupta has asked him to play in all of the Tests.
“Kuldeep Yadav must be included in the playing XI. I expected him to be in the playing XI for the third ODI against England at Lords. Not only did I expect to see him, but so did many others.
Unfortunately, people who made the team did not see him; this is a separate matter,” Deep Dasgupta stated on his YouTube account.
How did Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill miss an opportunity to play with Kuldeep in England?
During the England tour, the Indian think tank, led by Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill, predominantly used Axar Patel and Washington Sundar as spin alternatives.
While Axar Patel sparkled with the ball, taking five wickets and finished as India’s leading wicket-taker in the series, Washington Sundar could not produce enough.
Sundar went wicketless in the entire series, bowling only four overs with an economy rate of 3.25. Meanwhile, Patel’s dominance, underlined by his four-wicket haul and an average of 31.6, underscores how useful Kuldeep may have been had he participated in the playing XI.
Although Gambhir and Gill chose greater batting depth rather than focusing on specialist spin bowling, a left-arm chinaman could have posed serious issues for the England batting line-up on venues like Birmingham and Lord’s.
The wasted opportunity to play a left-arm chinaman might have cost India the series. However, according to Deep Dasgupta, such should not be the case against Sri Lanka in the spin-friendly conditions of the Island Nation.
What is Kuldeep Yadav’s track record vs Sri Lanka?
In Tests, Kuldeep Yadav has played only one match in Sri Lanka, and over his two innings, he has picked up five wickets, with best figures of 4/40. He maintained an average of 19.2 and a strike rate of 36 while playing at Pallekele in August 2017, which remains his sole Test performance in Sri Lanka.
Across Tests, ODIs, and T20Is, Kuldeep has played 17 matches in Sri Lanka, bowling 139.1 overs and taking 28 wickets at an average of 19.82 and an economy rate of 3.98.
These figures underscore how scary Kuldeep Yadav may be in the forthcoming Test series and why Deep Dasgupta is lobbying for him to be one of the first choices in India’s starting XI.
