Former India and Karnataka pacer Dodda Ganesh was fuming after the team management decided to drop left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav from the squad for the second and final Test against Bangladesh which got underway in Mirpur, Dhaka on December 22, 2022.
Kuldeep Yadav was shockingly dropped from India's playing XI and replaced by Jaydev Unadkat despite being the Player of the Match and one of the main architects of the team’s 188-run win in Chattogram. He picked 8 wickets including a fifer and scored 40 runs in India’s first innings to get them over the 400-run mark.
Unadkat got to play his second Test after 12 years and 118 matches after his first match which came in 2010 against South Africa.
However, Dodda Ganesh wondered why such treatment was being meted out to Kuldeep, and in a series of tweets, shared his thoughts and asked someone to tell the spinner not to lose heart.
BAN v IND 2022: Twitterati fume after Kuldeep Yadav dropped from India XI for 2nd Test in Dhaka
He posted: “Why does this happen so often to Kuldeep Yadav? You can’t be doing this to him again and again. Please someone put an arm around his shoulder and tell him not to lose heart. Yes. It’s tough being Kuldeep Yadav. Spare a thought for him.”
He then compared Kuldeep’s exclusion to what happened with Karun Nair, who had scored a brilliant 303* in the Chennai Test against England in 2016 but was dropped from Indian XI for the next Test in Hyderabad for an extra pacer, which was played against Bangladesh in 2017.
“I guess the think tank needs to be a bit more considerate while dealing with the youngsters who’ve done well; and tinker the team combo accordingly. Last time they dropped Karun after his 303* to play an extra seamer at HYD. And now this, with #KuldeepYadav. Shocking. Ridiculous,” Ganesh tweeted.
He also slammed the Indian team management for their decision to bench Kuldeep Yadav despite pointing out that the Bangladeshi batters had difficulty reading the left-arm spinner in Chattogram Test.
Ganesh tweeted: “Also the way the Bangladeshis struggled to pick #KuldeepYadav in the last test, makes this decision to leave him out today even more senseless and defies cricketing logic. You want your match-winner to warm the benches? What are u guys upto? Seriously”
Meanwhile, India bowled out Bangladesh for 227 runs in their first innings on day one. Umesh Yadav picked 4/25 and R Ashwin picked 4/71, while Mominul Haque top-scored with 84.
India finished day one on 19/0 after bad light stopped play before time.
