Kuldeep Yadav To Make Way For Navdeep Saini For New Zealand Tests: Report

Under Virat Kohli, India have preferred the combination of three pacers and one spinner in overseas Tests and so far the strategy has paid off. The likes of Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav have pretty much justified the team-management’s decision of banking on pacers outside home.

And it looks like India will have the same strategy when they take on New Zealand in a three-match Test series next month. Team India will soon leave for New Zealand for a full-fledged tour. The Virat Kohli-led side will play five T20Is, three ODIs and three Tests in New Zealand. The T20I series will kickstart the tour on January 24.

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With conditions in New Zealand set to assist pacers, the selectors are reportedly set to drop Kuldeep Yadav from the Test side. According to PTI, the chinaman spinner can be dropped from the Test side in order to make room for fast-bowler Navdeep Saini who has already made his ODI and T20I debut. As per the report, Navdeep Saini is likely to be named in the Test team as an extra pacer rather than Kuldeep Yadav as the third spinner since only one among Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja will make the playing XI.

If that happens, Kuldeep Yadav would really feel hard done by. He has not played a Test since the Sydney Test last year when he picked up a historic five-wicket haul. That performance had prompted India head coach Ravi Shastri to say that the chinaman spinner would be the team’s first choice spinner in overseas Tests. However, things have not really panned out in that manner for Kuldeep Yadav. He has fallen down the pecking order in Tests and it would not be very surprising if the selectors pick Navdeep Saini ahead of him.