"To drop a Man of the Match is absolutely unbelievable”- Sunil Gavaskar on India leaving out Kuldeep Yadav from 2nd Test

Sunil Gavaskar sounded extremely disgusted with the Indian think tank’s decision to leave out spinner Kuldeep Yadav from the second Test in Dhaka, which got underway on Thursday, December 22. The development came even as he emerged as Player of the Match in the first Test in Chattogram.

The cricketer-turned-commentator called it an 'unbelievable' move to leave Kuldeep out. He wanted the left-arm spinner to retain his place even if India had to drop either Axar Patel or Ravichandran Ashwin.

Speaking to Sony Sports Network, Gavaskar said:

"To drop a Man of the Match is absolutely unbelievable...and unbelievable is a very gentle word. I want to use more harsh words. You drop a player who picked eight out of 20 wickets in the last game and have two other spinners. One of those two should have been dropped and he should have played no matter what."

For the uninitiated, Kuldeep Yadav took a five-wicket haul and scored 40 runs in the first innings of the Chattogram Test after his comeback into the Test squad after a 22-month gap. He followed it up with three wickets in the second innings to register his career-best Test figures of 8/113.

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“Kuldeep Yadav misses out and Jaydev Unadkat comes in” – KL Rahul

Stand-in captain KL Rahul called it an unfortunate decision to leave out Kuldeep Yadav as they replaced him with pacer Jaydev Unadkat. The left-arm pacer is making a comeback in India’s Test team after a long gap of 12 years following his Test debut in South Africa in 2010.

He will look to deliver after being rewarded for his impressive domestic performances for Saurashtra over the years. He recently picked up 19 wickets in 10 games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Speaking at the toss, Rahul said:

“We made one change – Kuldeep Yadav misses out and Jaydev Unadkat comes in. Unfortunate decision for us to leave him (Kuldeep) out but it’s an opportunity for Unadkat."

Meanwhile, Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and decided to bat first. The hosts have made two changes - Taskin Ahmed replaced Ebadot Hossain, while Mominul Haque replaced Yasir Ali.

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India Playing XI vs Bangladesh: KL Rahul (captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammed Siraj.