"Find it amazing how easily India drops a Kuldeep Yadav" - Sanjay Manjrekar baffled with the spinner's absence in 1st IND vs BAN 2024 TestÂ
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar was astonished by Rohit Sharma's call to drop spinner Kuldeep Yadav for the first Test against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The Men in Blue opted for an unusual combination of three pacers and two spinners for a home Test to kickstart their red-ball season.
Conditions on the subcontinent usually warrant three spinners. The norm always has been the two veteran spinners - Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja - holding their place, while one of Kuldeep Yadav or Axar Patel plays as the third tweaker. However, this time, neither of the secondary spinners was preferred by Team India as right-arm pacer Akash Deep rounded up the bowling attack.
Sanjay Manjrekar expressed his surprise over India's selection call with a post on X.
"Find it amazing how easily India drops a Kuldeep Yadav," Sanjay Manjrekar wrote.
Kuldeep Yadav has been in and out of the Test side since his debut in 2017. After being dropped from the playing XI despite picking up eight wickets in the series opener against Bangladesh in 2022, the spinner returned to the mix for the home series against England in early 2024.
He played four matches in a row to end the series with 19 wickets and also chipped in with some handy cameos down the order, to arguably be the favorite over Axar Patel in terms of selection.
"India might find it a bit more difficult to beat Bangladesh if they produce rank turners" - Sanjay Manjrekar
Ever since the talk of the red soil pitch surfaced, the prospect of a rank turner was ruled out. Bangladesh had troubled India on a spinning Dhaka surface in 2022, and the Bangla Tigers continue to possess a lethal spin bowling unit.
A sporting track will also serve the Indian pacers in good stead ahead of the crucial tour of Australia in the coming months.
"You can't have a green top pitch which is seam-friendly in Indian conditions. Indian batting has also struggled a bit on turning pitches and with the three spinners there, India might find it a bit more difficult to beat Bangladesh if they produce rank turners," Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo prior to the first Test.
The Bangladesh pacers have made the most of a seam-friendly surface and the overcast conditions to reduce India to 28-2 within the first hour of play on Day 1.