Former Indian spinner Murali Kartik lashed out at Indian team management for leaving veteran wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav out of the playing XI for the first ODI against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland.
Interestingly, Kuldeep was in the T20I squad for the five-match series, which India won 3-2. However, he wasn’t part of the playing XI in any of the fixtures, raising eyebrows among Indian cricket fans.
“We are going with the four fast bowlers and two all-rounders with Naman and Axar, with Anshul, Aaqib, Gurnoor and Arshdeep,” Shubman Gill said at the toss.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Kartik expressed disappointment at Kuldeep’s omission for the sixth consecutive game on the New Zealand tour despite being part of all three squads for the tour. Further, he questioned Mohammed Siraj and Nitish Kumar Reddy’s exclusion.
“Literally defies logic for me. I’m trying to figure out what, because what is it? Gurnoor has gone for 96 or 97 runs twice now. Aaqib Nabi did really well in Ranji Trophy cricket, and why are you getting rid of Mohammed Siraj from the playing XI? What wrong has he done? You are trying to groom Nitish Kumar Reddy as the next all-rounder, and you have picked him for only this game, but he is not there,” Murali Kartik said on Cricbuzz.
“Kuldeep Yadav, what does it have to do with the size of the boundary? New Zealand is not Melbourne or Adelaide. He is the common denominator; he is in all three squads. Whether you are a rhythm bowler or not, just from a mental perspective, you are always thinking about what needs to be done to find a regular place in all three teams,” he added.
