Former India player-turned-veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has questioned the decision to drop Kuldeep Yadav from India’s playing XI for the third ODI against England. He added that the left-arm wrist-spinner has been ignored repeatedly despite being India’s highest wicket-taker in ODIs over the last five years as well. However, India suffered a 27-run loss in the third ODI against England at Lord’s on Sunday, July 19 as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “What will Kuldeep Yadav have to do? That’s a big question I ask. If Kuldeep had been playing for any other country, he would have played every single game in every single format. No one would have touched him in Tests, ODIs, and T20Is.”

“Who is India’s highest wicket-taker in ODIs in the last five years? It’s Kuldeep Yadav. Who is second? Mohammed Siraj. Who is third? Mohammad Shami. All three are not part of this team. One is part of the team, but he is not played. He is the No. 1 spinner in the world across the three formats at the moment, but we are unable to make a place for the best spinner in the world across three formats. The first person we drop is Kuldeep,” he added again.

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Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra also questioned whether Kuldeep Yadav should have been part of India’s playing XI for the third ODI against England, given that Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t available.

“Jasprit Bumrah got injured, and our bowling looks half without him. With Jassi, it’s beast mode, but our team becomes weak without him. In such a scenario, should Kuldeep Yadav not have been played? You played four fast bowlers. The opposing team won the toss and batted first. They scored nearly 400 runs,” he said.

“They scored 62 runs in the last three overs because they had batters left. The batters were left because we didn’t pick up wickets in the middle overs. If they have a lot of wickets in hand, they will thrash us in the end. Kuldeep being there is necessary for that,” Aakash Chopra concluded.