The Manchester Test has been tough for India with a string of injuries. Nitish Reddy, Arshdeep Singh and Akash Deep were already out and now Rishabh Pant is injured too.
The team has made some changes for this Test but Kuldeep Yadav is still waiting to play. Ravichandran Ashwin was frustrated after Day 2 and questioned why the spinner is still not playing.
India is 1-2 down in the series against England and struggling with both performance and player health. Kuldeep Yadav’s absence is a big talking point as he has not played a single game in the series. With injuries in the team, Shardul Thakur’s all-rounder ability got him a spot and Kuldeep was left out.
Ravichandran Ashwin has questioned the decision to leave Kuldeep out. On his YouTube channel he said the team is not playing a quality spinner despite having a strong batting lineup.
“If Shardul Thakur is going to bowl only a few overs and score a few runs – and I like Shardul a lot – why not play Kuldeep Yadav? I just don’t get it,” he said.
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“I know it may seem odd with three spinners already, but Jadeja is now a specialist batter and Washington Sundar is also batting well. If your bowlers can bat this well why not include a more attacking bowler?” he added.
India scored 358 in their first innings and then struggled with the bowling as England openers started well. Jack Crawley and Ben Duckett put together a 166 run opening partnership before Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Crawley for 84. In the 39th over Anshul Kamboj took his first Test wicket, removing Duckett for 94. England finished Day 2 at 225/2.
