Kuldeep Yadav made a stunning match-winning effort against Bangladesh in the series opener in Chattogram last week. Not only did he end with eight wickets, which included a record fi-fer in what was his first Test appearance in 22 months, he also scored a valiant knock of 40, in India’s 188-run win. However, experts and fans were left shocked when India captain KL Rahul dropped Kuldeep for the second Test in Mirpur. After the win, Rahul revealed the reason behind his call.
India was not expected to change their winning combination after Chattogram Test. But after toss, Rahul revealed that Kuldeep was dropped from the XI to make way for fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat, who made his first Test appearance for India after 12 years, having last played in 2010 Centurion Test against South Africa.
With much assistance for the spinners, especially in the second innings, where they picked 12 of the seven wickets, the decision on Kuldeep was strongly criticised by veteran cricketers and experts.
Speaking to the press after the Mirpur game, Rahul admitted having missed Kuldeep in the second innings but explained the that decision was taken after their assessment of the pitch on Day 1 where they felt that there was assistance for both spinners and fast bowlers.
“Ideally, the impact player rule that has been introduced in IPL, had that been in Test matches as well, I would have definitely brought back Kuldeep Yadav in the second innings. It was a tough call given that in the last match he won us the game against Bangladesh. He was the Man of the Match. But what we felt after seeing the pitch the first day, we though there would be assistance for both fast bowlers and spinners and with that we wanted to play the best balanced team possible. That is a call we made and I don’t regret the decision. If you notice, the fast bowlers took a lot of wickets. There was assistance for the fast bowlers and lot of inconsistent bounce. And we took this decision from our experience of playing in the one-days,” he explained.
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