Former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik questioned the team’s decision to drop bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur after just one Test of the ongoing England series. They also made three changes to the playing XI that lost the first Test in Leeds for the second Test in Edgbaston.

Talking about India ringing in multiple changes for the second Test, Karthik told Sky Sports, “Have to admit it shows a bit of muddled thinking. If they wanted to go with Shardul (Thakur), they should have stuck with him for a couple of games. If it was Nitish Kumar Reddy, stick with him. When you chop and change, it makes it uncomfortable because there is not too much of a difference between the Leeds pitch and this one. So, just the result has forced you to go in a different direction.”

“When it comes to Shardul vs Nitish or Washington to Kuldeep, if you are going to do this after one Test, it just says you are reacting a certain way to one Test loss. They would want to stay away from that and stay as balanced as they can. It’s not just a reaction to the one Test loss, I think there is a little bit of chat about the last nine Tests, seven losses, one win and one draw. There is a little bit of that baggage as well to try and turn that pattern around, so there was a lot of pressure and they were looking at this particular Test match in isolation and rung in all the changes,” he said.

Dinesh Karthik also believes Team India should have played Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Yadav in the playing XI  instead of Washington Sundar and Akash Deep for the Edgbaston Test as well.

“I would have loved to see a Kuldeep and an Arshdeep. Arshdeep purely because he bowls a fuller length and in England, that works really nicely. Akash Deep bowls slightly short of length,” again said Karthik.