Kuldeep Yadav: Why was the ace spinner dropped from team? Skipper KL Rahul finally speaks on controversial change

Kuldeep Yadav: In the series opener against Bangladesh last week in Chattogram, Kuldeep Yadav produced an incredible game-winning performance. In addition to taking eight wickets overall, including a record five in his first Test match in 22 months, he also contributed a gallant 40-run innings to India’s 188-run victory. But when India’s skipper KL Rahul decided to bench Kuldeep for the second Test at Mirpur, experts and supporters were taken aback. Rahul detailed the rationale behind his call after the victory.

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Kuldeep was dropped from the second test

After the Chattogram Test, it was not anticipated that India would alter their winning lineup. Rahul confirmed after the toss that fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat, who was playing in his first Test match for India in 12 years and hadn’t played since the 2010 Centurion Test against South Africa, had replaced Kuldeep in the starting lineup.

The spinners received a lot of help, especially in the second innings when they picked up 12 of the seven wickets. Veteran cricketers and experts sharply criticised the choice of Kuldeep.

After the match at Mirpur, Rahul acknowledged to the media that he had missed Kuldeep in the second innings but added that the choice had been made after they had evaluated the pitch on Day 1 and determined that it was favourable for both fast and spin bowlers.

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What did the skipper KL Rahul say on Kuldeep Yadav?

He spoke, “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.”

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