Kuldeep Yadav dropped, not for the first time and won't be the last either

Until a few days ago, Kuldeep Yadav was the toast of the nation. He picked up eight wickets during India’s win against Bangladesh in the first Test and also scooped up the Player of the Match award. His five-wicket haul in the first innings was the third of his career and his performance was indicative of all the hype that was generated when he made his Test bow against Australia in 2017.

However, he now finds himself out of India’s first-choice playing XI, which can happen to anyone considering the talent the Men In Blue have in their ranks. Because it is Kuldeep, though, things are not as black and white. This is not the first time something of this ilk has happened and with the way things are going, it might not be the last time either.

For the past couple of years, Kuldeep has not been a regular fixture in the Indian team across all formats. Several reasons have been given, although most have revolved around his lack of pace in the air and the fact that batters have been able to read him off the surface.

To his credit, he has worked on those aspects and returned with a bang in IPL 2022, starring for the Delhi Capitals, though they did not make the playoffs. Since then, he has been pretty effective in the handful of chances he received in the national set-up, emphasized by his match-winning performance against Bangladesh at Chattogram.

That said, the 28-year-old, despite boasting the ability to single-handedly tilt the scales of any cricket match, has only played eight Tests. In 14 innings, however, he has picked up three or more wickets seven times, which is not a bad ratio and is, in fact, very impressive considering he bowls wrist spin. There has been the odd occasion where he has looked lackluster but, as his numbers suggest, that does not happen very often.

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Kuldeep was dropped by India for the 2nd Test against Bangladesh

Kuldeep Yadav has been dropped from the team for India's second Test against Bangladesh.

Kuldeep Yadav also seems like someone who needs a bit of confidence to bowl at his best. Kolkata Knight Riders failed to do that in the IPL in 2020 and 2021 but the Delhi Capitals managed to extract every ounce of performance earlier this year.

A key role was played by Rishabh Pant, who backed the wrist spinner irrespective of what he had done in the previous game. Cut to the Indian team and he has been dropped from the team for India's second Test against Bangladesh, despite bagging the Player of the Match award in the previous match.

So, just think about this from Kuldeep’s perspective, and the kind of message that is being transmitted. It is almost as if India are telling him that his most recent performance does not matter and that hierarchy will always rule over current form (as long as it is convenient). And this has long been an underlying theme with Kuldeep.

Remember 2018-19 and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy? Kuldeep helped India secure the series win with a stunning six-wicket haul at Sydney, even prompting Ravi Shastri to say he was India’s premier overseas spinner, ahead of the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

He had to wait more than two years to make his next Test appearance. Oh, and he was largely not injured during this period. It was either about him being too slow in the air or not being deceptive enough. And now, when he seems to have tided over those problems, and has given another illustration of how genuine a match-winner is, India want him running the drinks.

This is, at the cost of sounding blunt, very farcical. Yes, there might be a little more grass on the surface and the decision to play a third seamer could prove inspirational. Jaydev Unadkat could make his long-awaited return to the side and run through Bangladesh, like he always hoped to do in India’s Test whites.

But just jump into Kuldeep’s shoes. He will be hoping that he never picks a five-wicket haul in Test cricket again because whenever that has happened, he has been omitted in the next game. And that is never a good starting point.

That is how funny it is. If you are Kuldeep, though, it is not amusing. It is, quite simply, very absurd and ludicrous. And unless India can give him a run, where his form is not evaluated on an over-by-over basis, or by a yardstick that discards him after every remarkable display, they will have serious questions to answer.

All Kuldeep can do is keep posing that selection headache. But if India are so reluctant to play him and are so trigger-happy vis-à-vis his selection, there is not a lot he can do anyway.