Snubbed Indian spinners continue to prove their merit in the ongoing County Championship even as India have adopted a more pace-favouring approach in the ongoing IND vs ENG Test series. While Kuldeep Yadav ended the series without getting even a single game, Yuzvendra Chahal and Sai Kishore – Indian spinners taking part in the County Championship, have silently gone on to prove their mettle with incredible spells. Despite naming a specialist spinner in the form of Kuldeep in the squad, India chose to stick to Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar instead.
Kishore, Chahal serve timely reminder to Gambhir
In the Durham vs Surrey that commenced from July 29, Kishore ended up picking 7 wickets, including his maiden 5-wicket haul in the County Championship. He wreaked havoc on the top-order, getting rid of Ben McKinney (24) and Ollie Robinson (25) before going on to rattle the lower-order and the tailenders by picking three more wickets. Eventually, he finished the game with figures of 7/98. Overall, he finished with 11 wickets from 2 matches.
Chahal finished with figures of 6/118 from 33.2 overs on Day 2 of Northamptonshire vs Derbyshire. He struck twice in the 25th over – getting rid of Harry Came in the first delivery and L Reece in the last ball of the over. An over later, Chahal bagged his third wicket by dismissing Guest. He then wreaked havoc on the lower order, wrapping up Derbyshire’s innings for 377 runs. Chahal bounced back in this match after going wicketless in the previous tie against Kent. So far, he has figures of 0/129, 4/51, 0/175 and 6/118.
India decided to keep Kuldeep Yadav out of the five-match Test series against England despite picking him as the lone-specialty spinner. Despite having multiple opportunities in the first four IND vs ENG Tests, Gambhir and Gill continued to back Jadeja and Sundar instead. While they did deliver some results, the specialist spinners taking part in the County Championships have responded strongly to their snub from the Indian squad.
