Kuldeep Yadav has not been picked as India opted for an extra batting all-rounder in ongoing series.
Sanjay Manjrekar, former Indian cricketer, has criticized the Gautam Gambhir-led Team India management for the selection decisions against England. After three test matches, India is behind England 1-2 and is in danger of losing the fourth game of the series in Manchester.
If India loses in Manchester, it will be Gautam Gambhir's third consecutive Test series loss. Before the match, India had already lost 1-3 to Australia and 0-3 to New Zealand. Manjrekar criticized the coach for his terrible selection choices and drew attention to Gambhir's preference for starting all-rounders in the Test lineup rather than specialists.
Manjrekar stated that Gambhir's affinity for playing the fourth seamer made little sense, as they were not bowling a lot of overs in the first place. Manjrekar used Shardul Thakur as an example to support his argument, pointing out that the seamer had only bowled 27 overs in the two Test matches thus far and had not taken enough wickets.
"What is coming through for everyone, despite India's heroism with the bat, is that the selections have been quite poor. We saw what Shardul Thakur was capable of in the first Test match, but despite that, he was picked again. And we saw the repeat of that inclination to have a bowler who can bat a bit. I think that thought has to be dumped, and India in this Test match needed a pure batter," Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.
Manjrekar also pointed out that the team management didn’t stick to their claims made in press conferences.
Manjrekar claimed that despite the management's repeated insistence on taking 20 wickets in each innings, Kuldeep Yadav has been flatly rejected for a spot in the series. Due to Gambhir's preference for Washington Sundar, Kuldeep, who last played against New Zealand in Bengaluru, is not playing.
"KL Rahul and Shubman Gill have tried their best to salvage the situation, but a pure batter in the team would have been handy, plus a pure wicket-taker. It has been hard to understand why India looks to get players who have two skills rather than just go for quality. Kuldeep Yadav not playing the whole series tells you the approach of this Indian team management. They say that India needs 20 wickets, but it's going to be difficult to convince me, because if that was the case, Kuldeep would have played by now," Manjrekar concluded.
Despite losing two wickets in the first over of their second innings, India managed to post 174/2 at stumps on day 4. India still trails by 137 runs, and KL Rahul (87*) and Shubman Gill (78*) will resume for them on day 5.