India's Test squad selection for the ongoing second Test against England at Edgbaston raised several eyebrows. While a lot of experts were surprised by Jasprit Bumrah's exclusion, considering there was a seven-day gap between the first and the second Test, a lot of them were taken aback by the non-selection of Kuldeep Yadav. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has openly criticized the dropping of Kuldeep on a spin-friendly Edgbaston surface.
For the unversed, the visitors went with Washington Sundar instead of the Chinaman as they wanted more batting depth after the twin collapses in the Leeds Test. Apart from the southpaw, India have also included Ravindra Jadeja. However, Ganguly feels those two spinners may not do the job in the Edgbaston pitch.
"I am not sure whether India are playing their two best spinners. England have fielded first, I am surprised with that. I think this is India's best possible chance at the moment. Put runs on the board and hopefully it works out," Ganguly said to Sony Sports Network.
Sunil Gavaskar also bemused by Kuldeep Yadav's absence
Apart from Ganguly, even Sunil Gavaskar is baffled by the exclusion of Kuldeep Yadav from the ongoing second Test. The former opening batter stated that since the Edgbaston pitch offers turn more, India should have picked Kuldeep as he is a match-winner.
"I'm a little baffled that Kuldeep wasn't picked, because on a pitch like this, where everybody says there's a little more turn," Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar was also not pleased by the Indian management for strengthening the batting. The visitors included Sundar and Nitish Reddy to bolster the batting depth. However, the legendary cricketer said India should have strengthened the bowling attack.
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"If your top-order batters are not giving you the runs you expect, then Washington at seven or Nitish Reddy at eight won't necessarily fix that, because those weren't the batters who failed you in the first Test. You scored 830 runs. You didn't score 380 in two innings — it was 830-plus. That's a lot of runs. So, where you needed strengthening was in the wicket-taking department, not so much in the batting," he added.
