Kuldeep Yadav not playing: India have once again rested their chinaman spinner in the ongoing Test series against England.
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During the first day of the third Test of the ongoing England’s tour of India in Ahmedabad, England captain Joe Root has won the toss and chose to bat in a bid to score a mammoth first-innings total.
“We are gonna bat first. Hopefully, we will get a big score like the first Test. Hoping the wicket will dry out as the game goes along. It is certainly harder and seems to swing more compared to the red ball. We are very excited to be here 1-1 and are looking to do well,” Root told Star Sports during the toss.
As far as the changes for the visitors are concerned, they have made four of them which includes changing their combination of playing two spinners. Perhaps wanting to trouble the Indian batsmen with the pink ball, England have included the veteran-duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad for the first time since Pakistan’s tour of England last year.
In addition to Anderson, fast bowler Jofra Archer and the batsmen-pair of Zac Crawley and Jonny Bairstow have been included into the Playing XI.
Why is Kuldeep Yadav not playing today’s 3rd Test between India and England?
It was on the day of the inauguration of the refurbished Motera Stadium that it was announced that the stadium would be called as the “Narendra Modi Stadium” which will be inside the Sardar Patel Sports Enclave.
Talking about India captain Virat Kohli, he too wanted to bat first in the first Test match at this venue in the last nine years. Unlike England, India have made only a couple of changes as all-rounder Washington Sundar and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah have replaced spinner Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj.
“We would have batted first as well. We would look to get into the game early on. The practice wickets have been quite spicy. Something that we have enjoyed as a team. It is such an exciting atmosphere here at the largest cricket stadium. I am a bit worried about the lights. We have played in a similar stadium in Dubai. You need to adapt pretty quickly.
1 spinner for England, 3 for India – somebody has this very wrong! Stokes’ lack of bowling in the series so far is a big factor in terms of the visitor’s balance. #INDvENG
— mark butcher (@markbutcher72) February 24, 2021
“[Jasprit] Bumrah comes in for [Mohammed] Siraj and Washington Sundar comes in for Kuldeep Yadav. We wanted to have a spinning option and Washi provides a lot with the bat as well. And having cushion with the bat helps especially in this situation when we bat second as the game could be evened out after the first innings,” Kohli told Star Sports during the toss.
