Yuzvendra Chahal And Kuldeep Yadav Must Play All Three ODIs In Sri Lanka: Aakash Chopra

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has called for Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav to play all three ODIs in Sri Lanka. Shikhar Dhawan will lead the young Indian side in three ODIs and as many T20Is, starting from Sunday. Aakash Chopra believes there can be no opportunity than this for the spin-bowling pair.

Kuldeep Yadav had a phenomenal start to his international career back in 2017 and was a genuine wicket-taking bowler. However, since IPL 2019 and the World Cup after that, the 26-year old has looked a pale shadow of himself. Yadav’s mediocre international outings have meant that he has not been able to nail a place in Kolkata Knight Riders’ playing XI either. Yuzvendra Chahal has performed decently in his recent outings; however, he needs to gain consistency.

Aakash Chopra recalled India’s group match against England in the 2019 World Cup after which Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav hardly played together. The 43-year old expressed his unhappiness at separating the pair after only one mediocre outing. Hence, Chopra feels that with Hardik now bowling and the absence of Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja should mean that Chahal and Yadav must play all three ODIs.

“Just one game in Birmingham went bad where you lost to England in the 2019 World Cup league match. After that, they didn’t get a chance at all to play together. A slight problem was also that Hardik was not bowling and they were looking to play another all-rounder. But now Hardik is bowling and Jaddu and Ashwin are not there here, so please play both of them. You should play them 100%. You should play them all three ODIs and see what happens,” Aakash told in his Youtube channel.

I don’t think there can be a better opportunity than this: Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra stated that the series against Sri Lanka gives India the best opportunity to play Chahal and Yadav together again and help rekindle their magic. The cricketer-turned-commentator conceded that Ashwin and Jadeja were not being amongst the wickets in the middle overs, while the current bowling unit often faces problems dismissing batsmen even within the first ten overs.

“I don’t think there can be a better opportunity than this because why did you play Kulcha together, Jaddu and Ashwin were not taking wickets in the middle overs. Nowadays there is a new problem that you are not taking wickets in the first ten overs also,” he added.

Also Read: Kuldeep Yadav Has To Find His Own Solution To Regain Form In MS Dhoni’s Absence: Venkatapathy Raju