And just like that, one of the three Test matches that main man Jasprit Bumrah will play on India's 2025 tour of England has been lost. This means the tourists will need someone to stand up from the bowling unit, for even victory in the other two games that Bumrah plays would not be enough to lift the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Winning a Test necessitates picking up 20 wickets, and where they would come from is a question to which India don't really have a clear answer as yet.
There's only so much Bumrah can do, as was witnessed on the fifth and final day of the England vs India clash in Headingley with the world's best fast bowler going wicketless and showing that he, too, is human after all. Meanwhile, on a pitch that was offering plenty of turn from the rough outside the left-hander's off-stump, the experienced Ravindra Jadeja could just prise out home team skipper Ben Stokes' scalp.
For all his guile, Jadeja is not one to vary his speeds too much, thus is unlikely to get the kind of purchase from a non-sub-continental wicket as a wrist spinner might. And therein lies India's Kuldeep Yadav conundrum.
The left-arm spinner has time and again displayed the ability to take the pitch out of the equation with the prodigious magnitude of side spin he imparts on the cricket ball. But time and again, the fact that he is not an all-rounder goes against Kuldeep in overseas tours as the team looks for the ideal balance.
In their opening game of a fresh ICC World Test Championship cycle, India captain Shubman Gill and coach Gautam Gambhir decided to go with three frontline pacers in Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna apart from a seam-bowling all-rounder in the form of Shardul Thakur. The overcast weather forecast and track record of the Leeds pitch presumably played a big role in the choice.
But with Thakur not doing nearly enough in Headingley and the prospects of a relatively spinner-friendly surface in Edgbaston, the clamour has grown for including Kuldeep in the playing XI ahead of Thakur.
India great Sunil Gavaskar and former England left-arm spinner Monty Panesar have both advocated this change. “Whether Jasprit Bumrah is fit or not, I think Kuldeep Yadav has to come into the team. I do believe that he should come into the team for Shardul Thakur because the Birmingham pitch will be one where there will be just a little bit of help for the wrist spinner,” Gavaskar said on the post-match show after the first India vs England Test.
"At Edgbaston, India could probably play (Ravindra) Jadeja and could actually go for the X-factor spinner in Kuldeep Yadav...we know that the Edgbaston wicket does turn a little bit. So you have that bit of an X-factor, which I think would be a better option. There's something about him," Panesar told PTI.
Whether or not Kuldeep delivers, if picked for the second Test is indeterminate. He could easily go for runs against the Bazball-happy English batting line-up. But when it comes to genuine match-winning ability, the left-arm spinner could well be the best bet for Team India, after Bumrah.
