Kuldeep’s omission baffles former players

New Delhi, December 22

Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav’s surprise exclusion from the playing XI in the second Test against Bangladesh drew strong criticism from the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, who has termed the decision as “unbelievable”.

The 28-year-old left-arm wrist spinner had career-best figures of 5/40 in the first innings in the opening Test at Chattogram. He backed it up with three wickets in the second innings for a career-best match-haul of 8/113 as India defeated Bangladesh by 188 runs. However, he was replaced by Saurashtra seam bowler Jaydev Unadkat in the second Test, making Gavaskar, former Test bowler Dodda Ganesh, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh and former women’s captain Anjum Chopra wonder why the team management had taken such a decision.

“Dropping a Man of the Match, that is unbelievable. That’s the only word I can use and it’s a gentle word. I would like to use quite stronger words, but it’s unbelievable that you left out someone who got eight out of the 20 wickets,” Gavaskar said while commentating about the match. “You have got two other spinners (Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin). So surely, one of the other spinners could have been dropped,” he added.

Ganesh wondered why such treatment was being meted out to Yadav. “Why does this happen so often to Kuldeep Yadav? You can’t be doing this to him again and again,” Ganesh wrote on social media.

Former India women’s team captain Chopra also took to social media, terming Yadav’s exclusion “strange”. “Man of the Match in India’s last Test victory just 3 days ago, Kuldeep Yadav makes way for Jaydev Unadkat as a third seamer for India. Strange but a tactical change,” she wrote.

Harbhajan said: “I think from now on, Kuldeep should stop taking five-wicket hauls. Who knows, he might get to play two Test matches in a row.”