Team India spin bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule, who attended the pre-match press conference in Colombo, has insisted that the attacking wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav fulfilled the role the team required in the Galle Test, which India won by 165 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
Notably, Kuldeep had a rough outing in the first Test against Sri Lanka as he scalped only one wicket, conceding 103 runs in his 25-over spell. Speaking in the press conference, the spin bowling coach has reckoned that Kuldeep’s Galle performance wouldn’t affect his place in the team.
“He’s been bowling extremely well. Just the situation that arose in Galle; he had to play a different role, and he tried his best to adapt and tried to execute as much as possible. I think he was playing his role. I think we had to see how the trajectory or the speeds worked in every session. As the days went by and there was a demand for different types of speeds and different types of trajectories, he definitely made an effort to bowl that way,” Bahutule told reporters on Friday.
“It all depends on the conditions. How, what is the need at that particular time, in different conditions, what would be the right combination, is fast bowling an option, is adding a spinner an option, and Kuldeep, look, for me, I think he has been a fabulous bowler over the years,” he noted.
“Yes, the wickets sometimes are slow, and sometimes the ball operates differently for the spinners on certain surfaces. But for me, he has always been a match winner, and he definitely is in the scheme of things, but we will again decide on the combination,” Bahutule added.
In the training session ahead of the second Test in Colombo, Kuldeep was seen absent, with the Madhya Pradesh spin bowling all-rounder Saransh Jain taking his spot. It would be interesting to watch if Saransh makes his international debut in the second Test.
