The Indian team management’s obsession with all-rounders saw Sai Sudharsan getting dropped from the playing XI for the first Test against South Africa at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata

India fielded three all-rounders in the lineup - Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar, who has been slotted to bat at the crucial No.3 spot.

The hosts also opted to go with two wicketkeepers in Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel, who forced his way to the XI after hitting twin centuries in the second unofficial Test for India A against South Africa A. Jurel will be batting at the No.6 position in Kolkata Test.

Legendary spinner Anil Kumble wasn’t one bit pleased with the team composition, saying he did not expect Sudharsan to be sidelined as he questioned the constant need for having more and more all-rounders in the Test lineup.

“Really surprised at the lineup because I certainly expected Sai Sudarshan to be playing in this Test match. Who's going to bat at No.3? That will be the question. Washington Sundar has been slotted to bat at No.3 so India will be bowling first. 4 spinners and 2 fast bowlers,” said Kumble on the official broadcast before the start of play.

“I certainly expected 3 spinners to play and 2 fast bowlers. So, that's going to be a bit of a challenge. Day 1, the wicket is good. It's not like you need 4 spinners and one of them will certainly get under-bowled. So, it's going to be interesting to see how Shubman Gill uses his resources on Day 1. Of course, the 2 new ball bowlers will become that much more critical on day 1 for India,” he added.

From the previous Test against the West Indies, India made two changes to their playing XI, bringing in fully recovered Pant and Axar in the place of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Sudharsan. Earlier, Nitish was released from the squad for the first Test as he was asked to participate in the three one-day matches against South Africa A in Rajkot.

Commenting on the team combination for Kolkata Test, Kumble said: “It's all-rounders. I mean, if you look at the batting lineup, Washington Sundar has been slotted at 3. So, obviously, if he bats at 3, then the batters are Shubman, Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. The rest of them are all-rounders. I consider Rishabh Pant as an all-rounder.”

“Dhruv Jhurel is an all-rounder. Then you have Jadeja, Akshar Patel and Washington Sundar. So, it's a team full of all-rounders, and that's probably the kind of team that India is going with in all 3 formats of the game,” he further remarked.

India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj