MSK Prasad opened up on the regular snub of Kuldeep Yadav across formats as he went on to defend the Indian team management. Kuldeep Yadav has been enduring a tough period of late.
Despite being regarded as a first-choice Test spinner overseas by head coach Ravi Shastri, during the 2018-19 Australia tour, he quickly saw being thrashed by Moeen Ali in IPL 2019 with visuals of him being teary-eyed going viral. After superb IPL 2018, where he picked 17 scalps averaging 24.59, he performed poorly in the last two editions.
Kuldeep Yadav Performed Poorly In IPL 2019 And IPL 2020
Although Kuldeep Yadav was a part of the 2019 ODI World Cup squad, he had an ordinary run overall. Since then, he was often found himself warming the bench across formats rather than taking the field at regular intervals for Team India. In addition, he seemed to have lost the trust of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team management with only a handful of games in IPL 2019 and 2020 edition combined.
He averaged above 71.5 and 92 with the ball in the last two editions, which is rather poor and pathetic, to say the least. He picked 4 scalps in limited appearances in IPL 2019 and a solitary scalp in IPL 2020.
Kuldeep Yadav has last played a Test match for India in January 2019. Kuldeep Yadav’s omission becomes all the more surprising given he picked up a five-wicket haul in his last Test appearance in Sydney against Australia in the 2018/19 tour. He debuted in Tests way back in 2017 but has featured in only 6 Tests where he picked 24 scalps averaging 24.12, which isn’t poor by any standards.
MSK Prasad: India Must Have Thought Of Having An Extra Batsman Who Can Bowl And Shahbaz Nadeem Was Selected For He Is A Left Arm Spinner
After he was left out of the playing XI for India’s first Test versus England in Chennai, his fans are sympathizing with him since they feel he might still not be given the nod for the second Test, starting from February 13. Fans and experts are questioning the move not to play him and many are claiming favouritism as a reason behind his snub, but former chief selector MSK Prasad has backed the current team management’s decision.
“Personal issues definitely won’t matter. I don’t think Virat will be thinking on those lines. Virat or team management would have had different plans about the selection. Washington Sundar did extremely well in his last Test match. They must have thought of having an extra batsman who can bowl,” MSK Prasad was quoted saying by Sportskeeda.
He further opined, “With regard to Nadeem, the stats show that England had a little tough time against left-arm spinners in Sri Lanka. Though they won the two Test matches, the left-arm spinners got a lot of wickets. So that’s the reason why they would have preferred Nadeem. My personal choice would have definitely been Kuldeep but the reason for Nadeem’s inclusion might be this”, added MSK Prasad.
Kuldeep Yadav returned from the Australia tour where he played only one game which was the 3rd ODI at Canberra. It looks unlikely that he will get a chance in the playing XI for the second Test as India is expected to swap Axar Patel in place of Shahbaz Nadeem, and retain Washington Sundar along with the spin department’s spearhead Ravichandran Ashwin. England won the first Test versus India by 227 runs in Chennai.
MSK Prasad’s personal choice for the Test series especially in Chennai though is definitely Kuldeep Yadav, who has been battling inconsistent form, which has been the reason behind his limited appearances for India lately.