Kuldeep Yadav warmed the bench on a dry wicket at Lord’s. The surface didn’t offer much assistance to spinners in the first innings. Some of this was due to Axar Patel being forced to bowl defensively. However, in the second innings, it started to rag. Even though Adil Rashid and Will Jacks failed to take a wicket, Jacob Bethell was more than a handful.
Kuldeep Yadav size hole in India’s bowling lineup
Now, one must realise that the surface got drier as the game went on and aided spinners more in the latter half of the game. But Kuldeep still merited selection. Not just because of the surface but due to Jasprit Bumrah‘s absence. Among current India internationals, the left-arm wrist spinner has the third-most wickets.
He’s an exceptional middle-over bowler. Yet, when Bumrah wasn’t available due to a knee injury, the management didn’t go to him. The result of his non-selection was India going for 203/1 in the middle phase, 11 to 40 overs. You need Kuldeep to break the partnerships. He’s the only aggressive spinner India has, and he didn’t get backed.
His exclusion was questioned by many. All he did during the India vs England ODI series was warm the bench. Yes, England spinners weren’t exceptional either, but they aren’t of his quality. Rashid isn’t what he used to be. Due to his dodgy shoulder, he’s a lot slower now.
Reasoning behind the snub at Lord’s
India’s captain Shubman Gill was asked why he didn’t play Kuldeep. He felt the surfaces in the first two games didn’t offer enough help to spinners, and the same happened in the first innings at Lord’s. That’s true, but Kuldeep can dupe the batters in the air. His action isn’t the easiest to read. One gets the reasoning, but you still have to back your best bowlers.
“So, the matches that we played before this, we had seen the wickets were not offering that much to the spinners. Whenever spinners came to bowl, we felt that we kind of had to go into defensive mode. Whenever the fast bowlers were bowling, it felt like something was happening. And that was the thought process behind not bringing in an extra spinner.
With the fast bowlers, you obviously want to create pressure and see chances get created. Maybe in hindsight, looking at the wicket, I think it got a little bit slow. When we were bowling and when Axar bhai was bowling for us, it didn’t look like the wicket would get that slow, but when they came to bowl, it did look like the wicket got a bit slower as the game went on,” Gill told reporters at the post-match press conference at Lord’s.
India’s failure to contain runs or take wickets saw England post a mammoth 388-run target on the board. Gill believes that once they got off to a poor start with the ball, they were always behind in the game. Once again, backing newbies like Gurnoor Brar and Prince Yadav, who had never played at Lord’s, ahead of Kuldeep was the issue. They went for 176/1 in 20 overs. But one can’t fault them much, considering they are still learning at the international level.
“Our bowling is a little thin on experience, and I think we were put under the pump in this match and didn’t respond well. We didn’t start off well in the powerplay. We gave away too many loose balls, and then we were always kind of chasing the game, trying to take wickets, create something — that shouldn’t happen for us,” Gill added.
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