“Please pay attention to the bowling as well” - Indian legend slams star bowler’s exclusion from AUS vs IND 2025 ODIs

Former cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin slammed Team India's decision to bench Kuldeep Yadav to include all-rounders for batting depth after the seven-wicket loss to Australia at the Optus Stadium on Sunday, October 19. The wrist-spinner once again found himself on the bench as the Men in Blue named three all-rounders in the mix, including ODI debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Kuldeep Yadav, who has featured in only three ODIs in Australia in his career, came into the tour on the back of stellar performances in the 2025 Asia Cup and the home Test series against the West Indies. However, instead of a frontline spinner, the Men in Blue named two spin-bowling all-rounders in Axar Patel and Washington Sundar instead.

The wrist spinner faced a similar conundrum during the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar trophy in England as well, where he failed to avail a single game.

R Ashwin opined that three all-rounders in the team is arguably overkill, and that batting depth should never come at the expense of a specialist bowler.

"I understand why they had two spinners with Nitish Reddy in the team for the batting depth, because Axar and Washi can bat as well. But please pay attention to the bowling as well. In these big grounds, if Kuldeep can't bowl with a lot of freedom, then where can he bowl? They talk about this batting depth, and if you have to rely on that, batters have to take more responsibility, right? If they are playing extra batters, then they are shielding the batters. How many more all-rounders do you want? I don't get it at all," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

The all-rounders scored a combined 60 runs off 59 deliveries, and picked up two wickets in 8.1 overs, while conceding 49 runs in India's crushing loss in the series opener.

"I always felt bad for Kuldeep" - R Ashwin on the wrist spinner being confined to the bench because of seniors in the Indian team

Kuldeep Yadav has had to wait for a considerable time to become a mainstay across formats in the Indian team. Despite making his debut in 2017, he has only featured in 15 Tests to date, with only four of them coming away from home.

Ashwin recalled how his and Ravindra Jadeja's presence in the team as senior spinners and all-rounders largely kept Kuldeep Yadav away from the playing XI. The wrist spinner managed to get into the side during the recent home series against the West Indies following the veteran spinner's retirement during 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Ashwin recalled being dropped from the Indian team away from home, and hoped that Kuldeep Yadav would not be too harsh on himself.

"When I used to be dropped in similar situations, I used to think that am I the reason that the team will lose? Kuldeep will also be asking himself the same thing, right? He will be thinking that even after bowling so well, someone else is playing, so am I really the problem in the team? It can be very crushing. Not a lot of people have it in them to deal with such a crushing situation," Ashwin said.

"I always felt bad for Kuldeep because when he was maturing as a spinner, me and Jaddu were ahead of him in subcontinent conditions, and in overseas there was only place for one spinner. I had a big disadvantage, why do you think I did not play in overseas conditions, because we did not have the seam bowling all-rounder. If there was a seam bowling all-rounder, I would have played a lot more overseas Tests. But now you have Nitish and other options, so Kuldeep should be playing a lot more," the former India player concluded.

Team India will face Australia in the second ODI at the Adelaide Oval, where Kuldeep Yadav has played before during the 2019 tour, where he returned figures of 0-66 in 10 overs.