New Delhi, February 14
Former India opener Aakash Chopra opined that left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav should be there in the playing XI for the third Test of the ongoing five-match series against England at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot, saying that he is a wrist spinner and can trap batters.
India and England will lock horns in the third Test in Rajkot from Thursday onwards."Ravindra Jadeja has become available. So if he is available, who will go out, whether Axar or Kuldeep will be left out? It's a big question. If you see logically, I would say don't touch Kuldeep because he is a wrist spinner. A wrist-spinner traps the batters and we also saw him bowling well in Vizag," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
"In fact, he got to bowl before Axar, bowled more, and was more successful as well. So I feel Kuldeep Yadav is your automatic choice but it seems like you are doing an injustice if you leave Axar out. He has been very consistent, so why should we suddenly say that you can drop Axar?" the former right-hand batter added.
Later on in the video, he spoke about going with four spinners for The Rajkot Test as fast bowlers Mohammad Siraj (First Test) and Mukesh Kumar (Second Test) did not bowl much in the matches they were part of.
"Another option could be to play four spinners because we played Siraj in the first match and Mukesh in the second match, and both had a very limited contribution. They had limited opportunities because they got few overs."
Chopra said that other than Jasprit Bumrah no fast bowler has been able to leave his impact in the first two tests.
"Let's be fair, the performance was not that good as well. While Bumrah was taking nine wickets in a match, both of them together picked up one wicket in two Tests. So is it necessary to play another fast bowler? You can play with just one fast bowler," the former batter stated.
Heading into the third Test India will be without the experienced wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul as the player was ruled out of the match. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday named Devdutt Padikkal as Rahul's replacement for the third Test.
India's updated Squad for the third Test: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal.