India took the field without Kuldeep Yadav in the second Test of the series on Thursday, surprising many fans and former cricketers alike. Kuldeep had delivered a player of the match performance in the first Test, taking a five-wicket haul and ending with eight dismissals to his name. The spinner had also contributed with the bat, scoring an important 40 in the lower-order as India reached a strong total of 404 in the first innings.
Kuldeep made way for pacer Jaydev Unadkat, who is playing in his first Test for India since 2010. While KL Rahul admitted that it was an “unfortunate” decision to leave the spinner out, former India captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at the team management for taking the call.
Deeming the decision “unbelievable,” Gavaskar said that they could’ve dropped any other spinner if the decision was taken on the basis of the nature of the pitch.
“Dropping a Man of the Match, that is unbelievable. That’s the only word I can use and it’s a gentle word. I would like to use quite stronger words, but it’s unbelievable that you left out a man of the match, who got eight out of the 20 wickets,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying to Sony Sports Network.
“You have got two other spinners. So surely, one of the other spinners could have been dropped. But this guy, who took eight wickets should have played today with due respect to what the pitch looks like,” he added.
Kuldeep had made a comeback to the Indian Test team for the first time since March 2021. He had registered impressive figures of 5/40 and 3/73 across the two innings of the first Test.
Earlier, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan had won the toss and opted to bat in Dhaka. The hosts have made two changes to their XI, with batter Mominul Haque and fast bowler Taskin Ahmed replacing Yasir Ali and Ebadot Hossain.