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The curious case of Kuldeep Yadav
Gaurav Gupta | Aug 11, 2026, 04:00 IST
The curious case of Kuldeep Yadav
A match-winner by record, a fringe player by selection — Kuldeep Yadav’s bizarre Test journey continues
Kapil Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav’s childhood coach, still remembers the day his ward was dropped from India’s XI despite a match-winning performance.
In Dec 2022, during India’s two-Test tour of Bangladesh, Kuldeep was left out of the second Test after winning the Player of the Match award in the opener. He had taken five for 40 and three for 73, besides scoring 40 at No. 9, in India’s 188-run victory.
“I had tears in my eyes that day. No one, including Kuldeep himself, knew why he was dropped after winning a match for India with both bat and ball. It must be a unique case in cricket history. I told him just one thing: ‘Perhaps you should’ve scored a fifty,’” Pandey told this paper from Kanpur, where he first taught Kuldeep the nuances of left-arm wrist-spin.
That snub summed up Kuldeep’s stop-start Test career. In nine years, he has played just 18 Tests despite taking 79 wickets at 22.35, including five five-wicket hauls.
“I call Kuldeep the Mohinder Amarnath of today’s Indian cricket. He has to keep proving himself every single time. Look at how Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh supported Shane Warne. Look at how England have backed Adil Rashid in white-ball cricket and Shoaib Bashir in Tests. Ravichandran Ashwin recently said Kuldeep is India’s best spinner, and Maninder Singh has also said he should be playing,” Pandey said.
“Remember how the England camp praised him after he took seven for 112 in the Dharamshala Test in March 2024 to help India win by an innings and 64 runs.”
At the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo, Kuldeep tuned up for the two-Test series in Sri Lanka with a 40-minute batting session before taking two for 76 in 18 overs against the Sri Lanka Cricket XI. The first Test begins in Galle on August 15.
After warming the bench during India’s recent Test and ODI tours of England, this could be a crucial phase in the 31-year-old’s Test career.
“He is a rhythm bowler. He loses confidence if he doesn’t play often, but I’m confident he will prove his worth again if given a chance,” Pandey said.
Former India left-arm spinner Maninder Singh believes Kuldeep’s prolonged absence has much to do with the team management’s lack of confidence in him.
“I feel the team management, or the present coach, does not have much confidence in him. That is why they are not playing him. After coming back from injury, he was bowling so well, putting his whole body into his action. He was tossing the ball up, getting more revolutions on it, and after pitching, the ball was zipping through. I really thought he was going to be our next spin-bowling star after Ravichandran Ashwin. He was bowling beautifully. However, I feel Kuldeep hasn’t been handled properly,” Maninder told TOI.
Kuldeep’s constant sidelining has also hurt his confidence, he said.
“When the team management doesn’t play you for such a lengthy period, you start doubting your ability and skill level. You lose confidence because you are sitting out. It hurts.”
Maninder backed Kuldeep to make the XI for the first Test, with India likely to play three spinners on a turning Galle surface.
“Kuldeep should be there along with Ravindra Jadeja and Manav Suthar. However, the problem is that we will then have three left-arm spinners. Saransh can come in if we need variety, but he conceded 54 in 11 overs in the warm-up. Ultimately, it depends on how confident the team management is about Kuldeep,” he said.
One reason for Kuldeep’s exclusion in England may have been the lack of assistance for his craft on those pitches. Maninder, however, said that should not matter.
“Forget Sri Lanka, I wouldn’t have dropped Kuldeep in England. For me, he was a key bowler there too. He is a wrist-spinner who can turn the ball on any track,” he said.
Maninder also questioned India’s preference for spin-bowling allrounders over specialist wicket-takers.
“From what I have seen, the present team management is trying to cushion India’s batting. In that process, they are playing bowlers like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar. The idea is that they can bat a bit and perhaps bowl 15 overs a day. But do you want someone who will give you 15 overs a day or someone who will get you four wickets? Basically, you are playing a bowler from whom you are not expecting wickets. That’s the worst thing to do.
“We were pleased with a 2-2 draw in England. For me, if Kuldeep had played, the scoreline would have been 3-1 in our favour. A specialist bowler wins you matches. He won’t give you a cushion with the bat, but he can swing the game decisively with the ball.”
Kuldeep’s batting and fielding have also worked against him when compared with spin-bowling allrounders such as Jadeja and Sundar. He has scored 234 runs in 18 Tests at 12.31, but has a hundred and six fifties in first-class cricket, where he has made 1,121 runs in 50 matches at 20.01.
“Who says he can’t bat? Early in his career, he scored around 450 runs in a domestic season and has made fifties in all domestic red-ball tournaments. He’s a decent fielder. Recently, almost all Indian fielders have dropped catches. Why blame only him? It’s just an excuse to keep him out,” Pandey said.
India, currently ranked No. 5 and with only an outside chance of reaching the 2027 World Test Championship final, are set to play nine Tests until February: two in Sri Lanka, two in New Zealand and five against Australia at home.
They need Kuldeep to rediscover his rhythm. He could yet become the linchpin of their attack.
“You have no spinner who can take over Ashwin’s mantle as the strike bowler. As I said earlier, I thought Kuldeep was going to be the next big thing in spin. If he starts striking, it will be a different ball game,” Maninder said.
On whether Kuldeep’s rarity as a left-arm wrist-spinner adds to his value, Maninder said: “I’m not saying you play him just because he brings something different. I’m saying that when he came back, he was really good. He looked like a genuine wicket-taker. Keeping him out is like leaving out a genuine fast bowler for someone who can only slip in a few overs.”
In Dec 2022, during India’s two-Test tour of Bangladesh, Kuldeep was left out of the second Test after winning the Player of the Match award in the opener. He had taken five for 40 and three for 73, besides scoring 40 at No. 9, in India’s 188-run victory.
“I had tears in my eyes that day. No one, including Kuldeep himself, knew why he was dropped after winning a match for India with both bat and ball. It must be a unique case in cricket history. I told him just one thing: ‘Perhaps you should’ve scored a fifty,’” Pandey told this paper from Kanpur, where he first taught Kuldeep the nuances of left-arm wrist-spin.
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That snub summed up Kuldeep’s stop-start Test career. In nine years, he has played just 18 Tests despite taking 79 wickets at 22.35, including five five-wicket hauls.
“I call Kuldeep the Mohinder Amarnath of today’s Indian cricket. He has to keep proving himself every single time. Look at how Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh supported Shane Warne. Look at how England have backed Adil Rashid in white-ball cricket and Shoaib Bashir in Tests. Ravichandran Ashwin recently said Kuldeep is India’s best spinner, and Maninder Singh has also said he should be playing,” Pandey said.
“Remember how the England camp praised him after he took seven for 112 in the Dharamshala Test in March 2024 to help India win by an innings and 64 runs.”
At the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo, Kuldeep tuned up for the two-Test series in Sri Lanka with a 40-minute batting session before taking two for 76 in 18 overs against the Sri Lanka Cricket XI. The first Test begins in Galle on August 15.
After warming the bench during India’s recent Test and ODI tours of England, this could be a crucial phase in the 31-year-old’s Test career.
“He is a rhythm bowler. He loses confidence if he doesn’t play often, but I’m confident he will prove his worth again if given a chance,” Pandey said.
Former India left-arm spinner Maninder Singh believes Kuldeep’s prolonged absence has much to do with the team management’s lack of confidence in him.
“I feel the team management, or the present coach, does not have much confidence in him. That is why they are not playing him. After coming back from injury, he was bowling so well, putting his whole body into his action. He was tossing the ball up, getting more revolutions on it, and after pitching, the ball was zipping through. I really thought he was going to be our next spin-bowling star after Ravichandran Ashwin. He was bowling beautifully. However, I feel Kuldeep hasn’t been handled properly,” Maninder told TOI.
Kuldeep’s constant sidelining has also hurt his confidence, he said.
“When the team management doesn’t play you for such a lengthy period, you start doubting your ability and skill level. You lose confidence because you are sitting out. It hurts.”
Maninder backed Kuldeep to make the XI for the first Test, with India likely to play three spinners on a turning Galle surface.
“Kuldeep should be there along with Ravindra Jadeja and Manav Suthar. However, the problem is that we will then have three left-arm spinners. Saransh can come in if we need variety, but he conceded 54 in 11 overs in the warm-up. Ultimately, it depends on how confident the team management is about Kuldeep,” he said.
One reason for Kuldeep’s exclusion in England may have been the lack of assistance for his craft on those pitches. Maninder, however, said that should not matter.
“Forget Sri Lanka, I wouldn’t have dropped Kuldeep in England. For me, he was a key bowler there too. He is a wrist-spinner who can turn the ball on any track,” he said.
Maninder also questioned India’s preference for spin-bowling allrounders over specialist wicket-takers.
“From what I have seen, the present team management is trying to cushion India’s batting. In that process, they are playing bowlers like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar. The idea is that they can bat a bit and perhaps bowl 15 overs a day. But do you want someone who will give you 15 overs a day or someone who will get you four wickets? Basically, you are playing a bowler from whom you are not expecting wickets. That’s the worst thing to do.
“We were pleased with a 2-2 draw in England. For me, if Kuldeep had played, the scoreline would have been 3-1 in our favour. A specialist bowler wins you matches. He won’t give you a cushion with the bat, but he can swing the game decisively with the ball.”
Kuldeep’s batting and fielding have also worked against him when compared with spin-bowling allrounders such as Jadeja and Sundar. He has scored 234 runs in 18 Tests at 12.31, but has a hundred and six fifties in first-class cricket, where he has made 1,121 runs in 50 matches at 20.01.
“Who says he can’t bat? Early in his career, he scored around 450 runs in a domestic season and has made fifties in all domestic red-ball tournaments. He’s a decent fielder. Recently, almost all Indian fielders have dropped catches. Why blame only him? It’s just an excuse to keep him out,” Pandey said.
India, currently ranked No. 5 and with only an outside chance of reaching the 2027 World Test Championship final, are set to play nine Tests until February: two in Sri Lanka, two in New Zealand and five against Australia at home.
They need Kuldeep to rediscover his rhythm. He could yet become the linchpin of their attack.
“You have no spinner who can take over Ashwin’s mantle as the strike bowler. As I said earlier, I thought Kuldeep was going to be the next big thing in spin. If he starts striking, it will be a different ball game,” Maninder said.
On whether Kuldeep’s rarity as a left-arm wrist-spinner adds to his value, Maninder said: “I’m not saying you play him just because he brings something different. I’m saying that when he came back, he was really good. He looked like a genuine wicket-taker. Keeping him out is like leaving out a genuine fast bowler for someone who can only slip in a few overs.”
