‘Not relevant’: India coach declines to answer question on Kuldeep Yadav
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "‘Not relevant’: India coach declines to answer question on Kuldeep Yadav")
India's captain Shubman Gill and teammate Kuldeep Yadav celebrate Photograph: (AFP)
India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak dismissed a question about Kuldeep Yadav’s place in the team, calling it “irrelevant.”
India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak refused to comment on whether Kuldeep Yadav would have played the second Test against Sri Lanka if fit, as uncapped off-spinner Saransh Jain made his Test debut in Colombo on Sunday (Aug 23). Kotak brushed aside the question, saying he did not think it was a ‘relevant question’.
There had been reports that Kuldeep could be left out in favour of the 33-year-old Jain.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir did not discuss Kuldeep’s absence during his press conference on Aug 22. A day earlier, spin bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule had said Kuldeep was not training because he was ‘resting’.
Kuldeep also did not train on the eve of the Test, however, he travelled with the team as usual and was named as a possible concussion substitute, which raised some questions. Jain eventually replaced him in the playing XI.
“When we left, only his throat wasn’t well,” Kotak said in the post-day press conference.
“He has recovered reasonably well. He looked good when I met him in the evening. So it came down to whether we need three fast bowlers or three spinners. And with them having four left-handers in the top order, it made sense to play an off-spinner.”
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When asked if Kuldeep would have played had he been fully fit, Kotak appeared unhappy with the question, as it also raised doubts over the spinner’s position in the team’s preferred XI.
“He genuinely had viral when he left from there (Galle, the venue for the first Test). If the team needs an off-spinner, there is no need to say that he (Kuldeep) isn’t well. If the guy is in no position to play, there is no point thinking about what would have been done if he would have been fit. It’s unfair to think like that,” he said.
The question comes amid growing doubts over Kuldeep’s position in the team. Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently suggested that Kuldeep may not be captain Shubman Gill’s first-choice spinner in matches.
There have also been calls for the attacking spinner to receive better ‘treatment’ from the team management.
