Legendary captain Kapil Dev has given his opinion into the raging debate as to why India don’t play spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal together anymore. The duo have played 34 ODI together and scalped 65 wickets at an average of 22.73. Despite these good numbers, India haven’t played them together since their ICC World Cup 2019 group stage clash against England.
Even in T20Is, they hold a good record and have scalped 22 wickets in 10 matches. However, Kuldeep and Chahal haven’t featured together in an India XI in the shortest format since July 2018. Kapil has now spoken on the issue and stated that playing two spinners in the team weakens the batting and that is why India usually opt for all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja in place of either Kuldeep on Chahal.
“Jadeja’s batting and fielding is so good that if sometimes he doesn’t succeed with the ball that goes unnoticed. That’s where he scores better than the other spinners,”Kapil told ABP News when asked why India don’t play Kuldeep and Chahal together.
“If you play two specialist spinners then it weakens your batting a bit. Having said that, batting really shouldn’t be a problem for India but when need arises Jadeja can do the job with the bat and his form of late has been terrific.”
Kuldeep has featured in just one match in India’s ongoing tour of New Zealand. After missing out entirely from the five-match T20I series, Kuldeep was named in the playing XI for first ODI in Hamilton. However, things didn’t go as per plan as he was taken for 84 runs in his 10 overs and was subsequently dropped from the team for the next two matches.
Chahal, on the other hand, has got more chances in New Zealand and featured in all five T20Is and final two ODIs in the three-match series. He hasn’t been as prolific as he would have hoped for as he could scalp just three wickets in the T20I series against Kiwis and was taken for runs at an economy rate of 8.35.
