Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain, questioned Gautam Gambhir (coach) and Shubman Gill’s (captain) team selection for the England tour. His concern stemmed from Kuldeep Yadav not playing a single match in the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
Ganguly believes India needs to stick with Kuldeep, as the wrist-spinner will be a key player in the coming years. He thinks the 30-year-old should have played in the second, third, and fourth Test matches, pointing out that great Test teams always have had top-notch spinners.
I think England went with four fast bowlers because they left some grass on the wicket—I’m guessing that was on purpose. India has had good spinners like Jadeja and Ashwin before. I really wish Kuldeep had played in Manchester, Lord’s, and Birmingham. It’s hard to bowl a team out on Day 5 without good spin, Ganguly said at an event in Kolkata while talking to the media.
We saw what happened when India batted—England didn’t have a great spinner, so they couldn’t take wickets. In the past, teams had amazing spinners like Warne, Muralitharan, Swann, Panesar, and even Harbhajan and Kumble. India has to keep playing Kuldeep. He’s important for our future, Ganguly added.
Even so, Ganguly defended the call not to play Kuldeep in the ongoing Oval Test.
England has gone with four fast bowlers and no spinners. Maybe they left more grass on the field than usual, which is why India didn’t play a third spinner, since they already have Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. I’m just guessing, though, since I haven’t seen the field, Ganguly said.
Kuldeep, Arshdeep Singh, and Abhimanyu Easwaran were the only players in India’s 18-man squad who didn’t play in any of the series’ games.
The ‘chinaman bowler’ debuted in Test cricket in 2018 but has only played 13 Tests, with only two outside Asia. The most recent was in January 2019.
Kuldeep has taken 56 wickets in his Test career and is the fastest Indian to take 50 wickets in Tests by balls. He is also the fastest to reach that milestone in Test cricket in the last 100 years.