No lessons from Australia? Team India's risk-averse selection policy continues to haunt them in England

Despite dominating the majority of the first three Tests in England, Team India find themeslves 2-1 down in the five-match Test series. And while a valiant partnership between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill has kept them alive in the Manchester Test, India need short of something spectacular on Day 5 to pull off a great escape.

One of the major points of discussion in the ongoing Test series has been Team India's selection policy. Like in Australia, they have preferred to play the extra batter, who can also contribute a bit with the ball. As a result, left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, a proven match-winner, has not played a single Test match in the ongoing series.

Speaking at a press conference at the end of Day 4 in Manchester, Team India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak defended the move to stick to three frontline bowlers and three all-rounders. He commented:

"When you pick a team, you try and pick a balanced team. Because last game three players got hundreds, we can't play less batters. Also, because both our spinners are also good batsmen, we are playing them. In that also, we sometimes feel that the sixth bowler is not getting enough bowling."

If we look at the stats of India's bowlers in the Test series so far, though, they do paint a rather sorry picture overall. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj have both claimed 14 wickets each, while Akash Deep has managed 11 on the back of a 10-wicket haul in Birmingham. Off spinner Washington Sundar has done well with seven wickets in three games, but he has strangely not be backed enough.

Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja has seven wickets in seven matches at an average of 67.71. Nitish Kumar Reddy managed three wickets in two matches, while Shardul Thakur, who picked up two scalps in Leeds, has been wicketless in Manchester. The fact that India conceded a 600-plus total for the first time since 2014 is a huge indication of their selection policy being a flawed one.

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No risk, no reward: Time for India to accept harsh truth

Speaking at a recent press conference, India's bowling coach Morne Morkel admitted that the visitors were trying their best to fit Kuldeep into the playing XI, but lamented that the current team combination is not allowing them to do the same.

If we take a closer look at India's playing XI for the Manchester Test, only Bumrah and Siraj are genuine wicket-takers in the fast bowling department. Debutant Anshul Kamboj managed a wicket, but did not trouble any of the batters due to lack of zip in his bowling. The fact that he ended up bowling only 18 of the 157.1 overs in England's first innings says a lot about the selection blunder.

Of course, India had their hands tied to a great extent given the injury to Akash Deep. Also, Prasidh Krishna was extremely poor in the first two Tests that he played. Having said that, one is bound to wonder if India should have given Prasidh another chance. After all, he was in the squad ahead of Kamboj, has played a few Tests and also has a reasonable amount of international exposure.

Shifting focus to the big question on Kuldeep, for him to fit into the playing XI in Manchester, Team India would have had to drop Sundar. But, Sundar had claimed 4-22 in the second innings at Lord's to secure his place. The off spinner also impressed with two big scalps in Manchester. Bizarrely, though, he was introduced into the bowling attack after 68 overs and ended up bowling 28 overs.

Bowler	Innings	Wickets	Average	BBI	4w	5w
Jasprit Bumrah	5	14	26	5-74	-	2
Mohammed Siraj	7	14	39.71	6-70		1
Akash Deep	4	11	28.09	6-99	1	1
Ravindra Jadeja	7	7	67.71	4-143	1	-
Washington Sundar	5	7	35.85	4-22	1	-
Shardul Thakur	3	2	72	2-51	-	-
Nitish Reddy	3	3	37	2-62	-	-
Prasidh Krishna	4	6	55.16	3-128	-	-
Anshul Kamboj	1	1	89	1-89

(Stats of India's bowlers in 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Updated till first innings of Manchester Test)

Despite Sundar's impressive efforts, one is still forced to ask the question - would he have been preferred over Kuldeep if not for his batting skills? Yes, India have had an issue with batting collapses. However, to plug the leak, they have taken an extreme path, which is significantly hampering their chances of picking up 20 wickets (read winning Test matches).

The reason India won a number of Test matches away from home during the Virat Kohli era was because they had a strong bowling attack that consistently picked up 20 wickets. Kohli, in combination with Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun, built a group of players with solid focus on match-winning fast bowlers.

To be fair to India's current head coach Gautam Gambhir, he has been unlucky considering the constant injury and fitness issues with key bowlers. As for Shubman Gill, it is too early to be critical on him since he has just stepped into the shoes of India's Test captain. However, the root cause of India's red-ball woes in recent times stems from the fact that they don't want to take the bold approach.