By News18
Former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has said that he is a tad bit baffled by India鈥檚 decision not to play Kuldeep Yadav in the second Test against England at Edgbaston, adding that the issue in the first Test in Headingley was the inability to pick wickets and not of batting depth.
India faced a major selection conundrum with multiple factors coming into play in the build-up to the second Test.
In a bold step, India decided not to include either ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah or Kuldeep despite being 0-1 down in the series.
Gavaskar said that he couldn鈥檛 understand the logic behind the decision, adding that the bowling department should have been given priority, considering the situation.
鈥淚鈥檓 a little baffled that Kuldeep wasn鈥檛 picked, because on a pitch like this, where everybody says there鈥檚 a little more turn,鈥 Gavaskar said while speaking on Sony Sports Network.
鈥淚f your top-order batters aren鈥檛 giving you the runs you expect, then Washington at 7 or Nitish Reddy at 8 won鈥檛 necessarily fix that, because those weren鈥檛 the batters who failed you in the first Test,鈥 Gavaskar added.
鈥淵ou scored 830 runs. You didn鈥檛 score 380 in two innings; it was 830-plus. That鈥檚 a lot of runs. So, where you needed strengthening was in the wicket-taking department, not so much in the batting,鈥 Gavaskar said.
Meanwhile, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal continued his golden run with an 11th Test fifty as India reached 98/2 at lunch against England on Day 1 of the second Test in Edgbaston.
Jaiswal smacked 11 boundaries in his unbeaten 62 off 69 deliveries. He completed his half-century with a slashed four off Josh Tongue.
Karun Nair looked in fine nick during a partnership of 80 for the second wicket before an effort delivery from Brydon Carse that bounced extra and forced him to offer a regulation catch to second slip only five minutes before lunch.
Senior opener KL Rahul played on a Chris Woakes ball to be dismissed for just two.