Kuldeep warmed the bench in three of the five home T20Is against the West Indies.
The current Indian team management, led by head coach Gautam Gambhir, has frequently sidelined Kuldeep Yadav in favor of batting depth or alternative bowling combinations.
During the Sri Lanka Test tour in August, the left-arm wrist-spinner missed the second match in Colombo after his underwhelming show in the opening fixture.
Kuldeep was part of India’s squad for the away ODI series against England in July, but warmed the bench in all three matches. Upon his return to the T20I setup for the recently concluded home series against the West Indies, he was sidelined from the playing XI after conceding 1-53 in West Indies’ chase of 250 at Ranchi.
Amidst all the setback, legendary spinner Ravichandran Ashwin sympathized with Kuldeep Yadav, citing that the treatment meted out to the latter is often “unfair”.
“Kuldeep has produced results over the years and it is unfair to pin the blame on one bowler when conditions are against him. He hasn’t been the go-to option under this management, which is unfortunate,” Ashwin said, as quoted by TOI.
Ashwin fears that Kuldeep might face another benching under the current management when the team starts it all-format tour of New Zealand with a five-match T20I series in Christchurch on October 22.
He predicted that with Hardik Pandya unavailable, Varun Chakaravarthy is likely to be chosen ahead of Kuldeep as the primary attacking spin option, provided the mystery spinner successfully recovers from a side strain.
“With Hardik Pandya not yet back, I expect Varun Chakravarthy to get the nod ahead of Kuldeep (in New Zealand), though it will be interesting to see how he returns from his side strain,” Ashwin added.
He expressed worry that India might compromise on genuine, attacking wicket-takers by prioritizing lower-order batting depth through the inclusion of all-rounders like Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar.
“If we have Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar around, we might see India leave out an attacking spin option. I hope not, but that could again be the direction we take,” he remarked.
If India decide to play four frontline seamers on the Kiwi pitches, Ashwin emphasized that the management must pick out-and-out wicket-takers rather than all-round options who dilute the bowling threat.
India’s squad for New Zealand T20Is: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson [WK], Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav