Want to use stronger word but dropping Kuldeep is unbelievable: Sunil Gavaskar

New Delhi, December 22

Spinner Kuldeep Yadav’s surprise omission from the playing XI for the second Test against Bangladesh drew scathing criticism from legend Sunil Gavaskar, who described the ax as “unbelievable” after his impressive performance in the series opener.

The 28-year-old left-arm wrist spinner took 5/40 in the first innings in the inaugural Test at Chattogram. He took three wickets in his second innings for a career-best figure of 8/113 as India beat Bangladesh by 188 runs.

However, he was replaced by Saurashtra seam bowler Jaidev Unadgad in the second Test which started in Mirpur on Thursday. This left Gavaskar, former Test bowler Thota Ganesh and former women’s captain Anjum Chopra wondering why the team management took such a decision.

“To drop the man of the match, unbelievable. That’s the only word I can use and that’s a soft word. I want to use stronger words, but it’s unbelievable that you gave up a man of the match. I got 8 wickets out of 20,” he told series broadcasters Sony Sports Network. Gavaskar said while commenting.