When India captain Virat Kohli announced the playing XI for the first Test against England after the toss, there was one notable absentee – Kudeep Yadav. India were playing three spinners but joining R Ashwin and Washington Sundar was Shahbaz Nadeem in place of Kuldeep.
After India lost the first Test on Tuesday, Kohli was asked about the reasons behind not playing Kuldeep in the first Test. Speaking about the same, the India skipper insisted that he does not regret the decision.
“Not really, not at all. When you playing two off-spinners, Kuldeep becomes more or less same kind of spinner taking the ball away,” Kohli said at the press conference.
“We were quite clear on what we wanted to play, what combination we wanted to play. There are no regrets whatsoever on that decision. Moving forward, we will think of combinations, which brings us variety as a bowling attack,” he added.
“And not one dimensional, turning away from the bat. These things are very important to bat,” Kohli further said.
It will be interesting to see if India stick with the same playing combination for the 2nd Test which will be played at the same venue starting from Saturday.
