Sourav Ganguly suggests Virat Kohli bring Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav back into the T20I team

What's the story?

Former Indian cricketer, Sourav Ganguly has voiced his opinion over the omission of wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal from the T20I squad of the South Africa series.

Ganguly feels that both the spinners are match winners and hence suggests that Virat Kohli includes them in the T20I team.

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The pair of Kuldeep and Chahal had been the ‘X-factor’ of Kohli’s captaincy as the two wrist spinners executed the task of scalping wickets in the middle overs efficiently.

However, the team management decided against including them in the team for the T20I series against West Indies and South Africa.

The Indian skipper, Kohli, had explained that the extended depth in the batting department was the reason behind the spin twins’ exclusion.

The heart of the matter

In his column for Times of India, Sourav Ganguly mentions,

"This is a good team but Virat needs to bring back the wrist spinners into this format. I hope Yuzvendra Chahal has only been rested to give opportunity to others, or else he is a must for India in the T20 format."

He opined that India do not need two left-arm spinners (Ravindra Jadeja and Krunal Pandya) in the T20I format. India's performances in the shortest format have not been so great this year and keeping that in mind Ganguly adds,

“The T20 World Cup is in Australia next year and opinions and judgments will be passed. The key person amidst all this will be Virat Kohli, and it will be important for him to stay calm for a long period of time.”

What's next?

India will battle South Africa in a 3-match Test series with the first Test starting from the 2nd of October in Vishakhapatnam. As for Chahal and Kuldeep, it will be compelling to discover whether they will make a return to the T20I team or not.

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