Kuldeep Yadav has taken 76 Test wickets at 22.42 with five five-wicket hauls. He has done this in just 17 Tests across nine years. That is not a bowler who cannot perform. That is a bowler who has never been given a Kuldeep Yadav consistent run long enough to show what he produces when he knows his place is secure.
India’s treatment of Kuldeep follows a cycle so predictable it looks like policy.
Kuldeep Yadav deserves a consistent run in the playing XI, not a spot that disappears in a short span. A bowler of his quality cannot perform when he is always playing for his place.
Cricket Voices, August 2026
The pattern repeats across years and formats. Pick him. Watch him deliver. Drop him.
| Series | Performance | What Happened Next |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney 2019 | 5/99 in the first innings | Waited over two years for his next Test |
| Dhaka 2022 | 8/113, Man of the Match | Dropped for the very next Test |
| England 2024 | 19 wickets in 4 Tests, 7 at Dharamsala | Back to the bench |
| Galle 2026 | 1/103 across 25 overs | Facing the axe for Colombo |
Three of those four entries show a bowler delivering at the highest level and being removed anyway. The fourth shows what happens when a wrist spinner plays one match after months on the sideline. The 1/103 at Galle is not evidence that Kuldeep cannot bowl on turning tracks. It is the result of a bowler who walked out already knowing one bad spell would send him back.
Sunil Gavaskar called it directly after the Dhaka decision.
“To drop a Man of the Match is absolutely unbelievable… and unbelievable is a very gentle word. I want to use more harsh words.”
Sunil Gavaskar, India vs Bangladesh 2nd Test, December 2022
Wasim Jaffer said what everyone could see: “He never got a consistent run in the Indian team.”
The selection logic is always the same. Jadeja bats at seven and bowls. Ashwin bats at eight and bowls. Kuldeep only bowls. Two slots, two all-rounders win. But that calculation values batting depth over the most threatening spinner in the squad. A bowler averaging 22.42 with a strike rate under 40 across 76 wickets is not a luxury pick. He is a proven wicket-taker being sacrificed for balance on a spreadsheet.
India played the entire England tour without giving Kuldeep a single appearance. In conditions where wrist spin could have offered something finger spinners could not, he sat and watched.
Really don’t understand how and why India drop Kuldeep Yadav. He’s the best white ball spinner in the world. Should be playing every game unless he’s injured. #INDvSA #Kuldeep
— hazharoon (@hazharoon) February 22, 2026
Insider read
Wrist spin is the hardest skill to control in cricket. Every team in the world searches for a quality wrist spinner and most do not find one. India has a chinaman bowler, a breed so rare you can count the active ones in international cricket on one hand. And they bench him.
A wrist spinner needs overs to find rhythm. He needs matches in sequence to build the confidence to flight the ball, to use his variations without fear. Kuldeep playing one Test every few months is not a fair trial. It is setting a player up to fail and pointing at the failure as proof he should not play. The numbers prove what a Kuldeep Yadav consistent run actually produces. Four Tests against England in 2024: 19 wickets. Five-wicket haul against West Indies in Delhi in October 2025. That is the return when he knows he is playing the next match.
India cannot keep treating its rarest bowling asset as disposable and then blame him when the results reflect exactly how he has been treated.
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