Shahbaz Nadeem was chosen over Kuldeep Yadav for the first Test in Chennai against England.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli surprised a lot of Indian fans at the toss before the first Test match against England when he announced that Shahbaz Nadeem was picked after Akshar Patel got injured.
One of the surprised members is former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who called Kuldeep Yadav 'unfortunate' for missing out.
Indian left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been warming the benches far too long. He did not get a single game in Australia where the Indian team's casualty list seemed to never end. While many cricket experts and fans believed Kuldeep to start against England, a certain Virat Kohli did not.
Gautam Gambhir, who captained Kuldeep in the IPL for the Kolkata Knight Riders, expressed his surprise at the decision to pick Shahbaz Nadeem over Kuldeep.
Gambhir told ESPNCricInfo, "You got to use him first up in the series, you don’t wanna wait for the second or third test match because a lot of times we’ve seen how a wrist spinner can actually turn the game. So it’s a bit unfortunate and surprising as well."
"They are playing two off-spinners. Yes, probably they wanted a little more depth in the batting at No.7 and No.8. So it’s a massive surprise. I would have picked Kuldeep any day. Whether it’s a right-hander or a left-hander, it really doesn’t matter when you’ve got a left-arm spinner who can take it both ways," he added.
The 39-year-old feels that Kuldeep Yadav would have been a great asset for the home side for the first Test in Chennai and was really unfortunate on his part to miss out.
"Little unfortunate on Kuldeep’s part. They should have actually picked Kuldeep against England. A left-arm wrist spinner is a unique commodity. He’s been with the team without playing much. He would have been a great asset," Gambhir said.
(With inputs from ESPNCricInfo)