Former India opener Gautam Gambhir wasn’t happy with the exclusion of the left-arm spinner, Kuldeep Yadav from India’s playing XI for the first Test against England, saying he would have a great asset against Joe Root and his men. Gambhir said he was surprised when Kuldeep wasn’t included in the playing XI as he is a wrist spinner and could have turned the game in India’s favor if given a chance.

Warming the bench hasn’t been a new concept for Kuldeep Yadav, but this time it was surprising because despite India picked three specialist spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Washington Sundar, and Shahbaz Nadeem in the starting XI. Notably, Kuldeep last played a Test two years ago in 2019 against Australia in Sydney, where he took a five-wicket haul in the first innings. Since then, he has been a regular feature in India’s Test squad but missed the playing XI in 13 games. 

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Talking about the same during a chat on Cricbuzz, Gambhir said, “A little unfortunate on Kuldeep to be honest. I thought they should have actually picked Kuldeep against England. A wrist spinner is a rare commodity. He has been with the team, he hasn’t played any cricket so Kuldeep would have been a great asset.”

Gambhir pointed that the Indian team opted for two off-spinners in the Chennai Test because the hosts wanted more depth in the batting at no.7 and no.8.

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Explaining the same, Gautam Gambhir said, “A lot of time we have seen how a wrist spinner can turn the game. It’s a little unfortunate and a bit surprised as well that they are playing with two off-spinners. Yes probably because they want more depth in the batting at no.7 and no.8. Again a big surprise was Ishant Sharma because he hasn’t played a lot of red-ball cricket.”