Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said that India should have selected Kuldeep Yadav for the Manchester, Lord’s and even the Birmingham Test. The Indian spinner hasn’t featured in any of the 5 Tests for India in the entire series and it has elicited quite a chatter in the cricketing circles.
“I wish Kuldeep had played in Manchester, had played at Lord’s and even in Birmingham because without quality spin you would find it hard to get teams out on day four and five of a Test. You saw what happened to England when India batted on a pitch which had a bit of rough and on a pitch which had a bit of turn — there wasn’t a quality spinner so England could not get 20 wickets,” he said.
“In the past, great sides had great spinners, whether it’s Shane Warne, Murali, England’s Swann, Panesar, India’s Kumble, Harbhajan, Ashwin. So, I think Kuldeep is someone India will have to continue to look into playing in the future,” Ganguly added.
Ganguly, however, added that it was okay for Kuldeep to be not in the team for the Oval Test due to the pitch looking to assist seamers more.
“England have gone on with four pacers and no spinners, it could be that they have left a bit more grass on it than the normal surface and that’s why India have not gone with a third spinner because they have Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. I’m just presuming and have not seen the wicket,” he said.
On Thursday, England stand-in skipper Ollie Pope won the toss and elected to bowl against India in the fifth and final Test under overcast conditions at The Oval.
Trailing 1-2, India made four changes to their playing XI, bringing in Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna in place of injured Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, Anshul Kamboj and Jasprit Bumrah. England are without regular skipper Ben Stokes.
(With agency inputs)
