Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his disappointment and confusion over the Indian team management’s decision to leave out spinner Kuldeep Yadav for the second Test match against England, which began on Wednesday at Edgbaston.
The team, led by captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir, opted to include Washington Sundar as the second spinner in place of Shardul Thakur, citing the need for a deeper batting lineup following a lower-order collapse in the first Test at Leeds, which India lost by five wickets.
However, Gavaskar strongly disagreed with the move, arguing that India needed wicket-taking bowlers, not additional batting support, especially after amassing over 800 runs across both innings in the previous match.
“I'm a little baffled that Kuldeep wasn't picked,” Gavaskar said while speaking to Sony Sports Network. “On a pitch like this, where everybody says there's a little more turn, Kuldeep would have been effective.”
To cover the absence of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who was rested for the match, India added young all-rounder Nitish Reddy to the lineup. This adjustment led to the exclusion of Sai Sudharsan, who had shown promise.
Gavaskar criticized both changes, insisting that the batting was not the problem in Leeds and that the real issue lay in India's bowling attack.
“If your top-order batters are not giving you the runs you expect, then Washington at seven or Nitish Reddy at eight won't necessarily fix that,” he said.
“You scored 830-plus runs in the match. That’s not a batting failure — that’s excellent. So, where you needed strengthening was in the wicket-taking department, not so much in the batting.”
England, leading the five-match series 1-0, won the toss and chose to bowl first at Edgbaston, hoping to capitalize on India’s unexpected selection choices.
