Exhibit 1: “You can't win a Test match without taking 20 wickets, no matter how many runs you have scored. So, that has been one of our key discussion points, you know, how we're gonna take 20 wickets.”
That was Shubman Gill, the India captain, before the first Test at Headingley.
Exhibit 2: “You can score 1,000 runs, but unless you take 20 wickets, you don't win Test matches.”
That was Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, after losing the Headingley Test.
On Wednesday, at the toss before the start of the second Test at Edgbaston, Gill confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah would be sitting out under the pretext of managing his workload. He also confirmed Kuldeep Yadav’s omission. The tourists ditched their second-best wicket-taking option after Bumrah because they chose to play two bits and pieces cricketers – Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar – at No. 7 and 8.
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Reddy bowls right-arm dibbly-dobbly and will never run through a batting line-up at this level. Washington's off-spin is not good enough to earn a five-for in Tests unless the game is played on a Bunsen. By not picking Kuldeep at Edgbaston, the Indian team management contradicted itself.
“We were very tempted to play (Kuldeep), but looking at the last match, we wanted to add some depth to our batting,” Gill told Mike Atherton at the toss, while mentioning three changes. It reeked of a fearful approach.
Ravi Shastri, the former India head coach, felt bad for Kuldeep, while calling out Bumrah's absence. “No ifs and buts, he (Bumrah) should have played,” said Shastri.
Before that, on the host broadcaster's platform, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar didn't hide his displeasure over Kuldeep's omission.
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Lower-order collapses notwithstanding, India scored enough runs in the first Test – 835 over two innings, including five individual hundreds. And yet, they lost the game by five wickets because the bowlers couldn't defend 371 in the fourth innings. Barring Bumrah, the bowling looked pedestrian. At Edgbaston, on a pitch that might have a bit of turn along the way, India overlooked a world-class wrist-spinner who could have trumped the conditions. Mind, Bazball has struggled against wrist-spin, including the series in India last year.
Gambhir, the first coach in Indian cricket with a football-style managerial authority, likes multi-skilled cricketers, and Kuldeep doesn't fit the bill. The head coach's approach is perfectly cut-out for white-ball cricket. Test cricket, however, calls for specialists and Kuldeep’s omission defied logic.
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