Kuldeep Yadav has played only 13 Tests since his debut in 2017.
The hangover of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy has started to fade away. India registered a thumping victory in the fifth and final Test at The Oval to level the series 2-2. Mohammed Siraj was the hero for the visitors as he scalped a five-wicket haul in the second innings to send shivers down England’s batting spine. He played all the five Tests, whereas Kuldeep Yadav did not play even one. The hosts needed 70-odd runs with seven wickets in hand, with Joe Root and Harry Brook at the crease. From that point, they somehow lost track and ended up succumbing to India. England’s white-ball skipper threw his wicket away to Akash Deep, and young Jacob Bethell followed him shortly.
Though the series ended on a high for India, there were several questionable decisions made by the captain and the coach. One of them, was Kuldeep Yadav’s exclusion from the team. The chinaman was benched for all the five Tests and did not get a chance to showcase his skills in the series. Coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Shubman Gill’s selections of the playing XI shouted batting depth. And this is where the left-arm wrist spinner’s chances took a hit.
Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav’s former teammate at the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has come up with a suggestion for Kuldeep. He spoke about the coach and captain’s tendency to play with batting depth. Moreover, he also added the the leg-spinner does have loopholes in his batting, which he might have to rectify.
“With all due respect to Kuldeep’s prowess with the ball, he’s got limitations to his batting. That’s going to take a lot of effort from his side”, said Uthappa on his YouTube channel.
Kuldeep Yadav’s Test career has been a mystery. He made his Test debut in 2017, and has featured in only 13 Tests so far in his career. The chinaman possesses a high variety of skills and has dismantled batting attacks on multiple occasions. In just 12 Tests, he holds 56 wickets with an average of 22.16. Moreover, his economy is under four and he also has four five-wicket hauls to his name in his brief career in the longest format.
The Indian team went ahead with the likes of Shardul Thakur, Nitish Reddy before settling with Washington Sundar as their option. The all-rounder from Tamil Nadu contributed immensely to India’s victories. However, Kuldeep’s inclusion in the team remained a wish for all the cricket fans and also Gautam Gambhir. Both Gambhir and Gill clearly mentioned that the reason for not picking the left-arm wrist spinner was because they wanted batting depth in the team.
Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan and Abhimanyu Easwaran were the only players who did not get a game in the five-match series. To everyone’s surprise, England is the team against which Kuldeep Yadav has scalped the most number of wickets in Tests. In just six games against the British, he has picked 21 wickets including a five-wicket haul. He has just featured in a solitary Test match in England in 2018, but has no wickets to his name on English soil. It will have to be seen how the Delhi Capitals (DC) youngster finds himself a place in India’s Test XI. It is very evident that he possesses too much of skill to be warming the bench.
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