IND vs ENG, India Have No Option But To Play Kuldeep Yadav: EAS Prasanna

Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav has played six Test matches in four different countries, since making their debut in early 2017. His last Test was the fourth and final match against Australia in 2019 in Sydney, where he took five wickets in the only innings he bowled.

Since then he has been forgotten, though he watched India succumb to England from the dressing room in the first Test in Chennai on Tuesday. In six Tests, 26-year-old Yadav has bagged 24 wickets at an average of 24.13 and is still reckoned as the X-factor and a dangerous bowler for batsmen around the world.

After India's embarrassing 227-run defeat at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday, voices seeking Yadav's inclusion in the Indian XI for the second Test, beginning at the same venue on Saturday, have started growing.

Legendary Indian off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna said the team should play Yadav in the second Test. "Now, we have no choice but to give him a chance. He should be given a fair deal. There was a lack of spinning [penetration] in this particular first Test match," Prasanna told IANS.

Kuldeep was selected for Australia's tour recently but he wasn't played in any of the four Tests, despite all the preferred players being sidelined with injuries. India preferred off-spinner R Ashwin, off-spinner Washington Sundar, and Ravindra Jadeja while Yadav watched India win their second consecutive Test series Down Under from the dressing room.

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