“Why does this happen so often to Kuldeep Yadav?” - Twitterati lash out at Team India after spinner is dropped for 2nd Test vs Bangladesh

Team India made a shocking decision to drop left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav from the playing XI for the second Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka. Speaking after losing the toss on Thursday (December 22), India’s stand-in captain KL Rahul revealed that India have brought in left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat in place of the spinner.

The decision was somewhat baffling, as Kuldeep was the Player of the Match in the first Test in Chattogram, his first red-ball game for India in nearly two years. The 28-year-old had claimed 5-40 in the first innings, his career-best Test figures and followed it up with 3-73 in the second as India beat Bangladesh by 188 runs to take a 1-0 lead.

Earlier, he contributed with the bat as well, scoring a crucial 40 off 114 in the first innings. The left-arm spinner and Ravichandran Ashwin added 92 for eighth wicket to help the visitors cross 400.

Twitterati were expectedly stunned by the Indian management’s decision to leave out Kuldeep from the playing XI for the second Test in Dhaka.

Here are some reactions from the micro-blogging site to the strange move:

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“Hard to leave out Kuldeep” - KL Rahul

Speaking after losing the toss, Team India’s stand-in captain Rahul admitted that it was a tough decision to leave out Kuldeep after his heroics in the first Test. He, however, added that it's a good opportunity for Unadkat to make his mark. Rahul said:

“We made one change - Kuldeep misses out and Unadkat comes in. Hard to leave out Kuldeep but Jaydev gets his opportunity today.”

Speaking about the pitch in Dhaka, he said that he too would have batted first but added:

“Not sure what to make of the surface. There is some grass, but it's generally good to bat here. There is generally some bounce here and some help for both pacers and spinners. We'd have wanted to bat first but we aren't sure what to expect. We just need to play good cricket and bowl well in the first innings. It's a bit damp so the ball might do a bit in the first session.”

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India vs Bangladesh 2nd Test playing XIs

India: KL Rahul (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (w), Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj

Bangladesh: Najmul Hossain Shanto, Zakir Hasan, Mominul Haque, Litton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Nurul Hasan (w), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed