Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 9 (ANI): Kuldeep Yadav wasn’t picked in the playing XI for the first Test against England, and India skipper Virat Kohli on Tuesday asserted that he does not regret the decision.
Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar were added to the squad after all-rounder Axar Patel was ruled out of the first Test of the four-match series against England on Friday.
Nadeem was subsequently picked in the playing XI ahead of Kuldeep and many fans and cricket pundits were fumed at this decision.
But Kohli said that the team wanted to have variety in the spin bowling department which prompted the management to pick Nadeem ahead of Kuldeep for the first Test against England
“Not really, not at all. When you playing two off-spinners, Kuldeep more or less becomes the same kind of spinner taking the ball away. So you need variety in the bowling attack,” said Kohli in the virtual press conference.
“We were quite clear on what we wanted to play, what combination we wanted to play. And there are no regrets whatsoever on that decision. Moving forward, we will think of combinations, which brings us variety as a bowling attack. And not one dimensional, turning away from the bat. These things are very important to bat,” he added.
Ajinkya Rahane played some crucial knocks during the Australia tour but his recent outing with the bat has raised eyebrows about his form. The right-handed batsman scored one run in the first innings against England and wasn’t able to get off the mark in the second essay.
Kohli came out in support of Rahane and termed him the most important Test batsman for Team India. The India skipper also pointed out how Rahane would have gone to score runs if Joe Root wouldn’t have held a screamer.
“Ajinkya Rahane is, I have said this many times in the past as well, along with Cheteshwar Pujara he is our most important Test batsman and he is going to continue to be,” said Kohli.
“We believe in his abilities, we have believed in his abilities for a long time now. He is an impact player. If you talk about the MCG Test, he stood up and scored a hundred there when the team wanted it most,” he further said.
“Here’s it’s just one Test, two innings. Today, you can put that innings aside but in the first innings, he wanted to score a boundary. It was a brilliant catch from Joe that got rid of him. So if that goes to the boundary and he gets runs, we would not have been having this conversation. There are absolutely no issues, everyone is playing really well,” Kohli pointed out.
England defeated India by 227 runs in the first Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday. The win over India in the first Test has also propelled England to the top of the ICC World Test Championship standings. (ANI)