Anil Kumble believes team management should have been upfront about Ravindra Jadeja’s injury

Yesterday, Ravi Shastri revealed that Jadeja was only "70-80 per cent fit" in the lead-up to the Perth Test, which led to a number of uncomfortable questions for the team management. While people questioned if India mmisse a trick by not playing Jadeja on the green Perth pitch, where Nathan Lyon walked away as the man-of-the-match, Shastri took pot-shot at the team's perceived detractors, for "firing blanks" from "millions of miles away".

However, Kumble has stated that Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri should have been upfront from the beginning.

“If both the spinners have been injured, then you didn't have an option. Then you would have preferred to say that upfront rather than now. That I don't know why the team management didn't mention Jaddu's injury but you know having said that, I have been through shoulder issues and I have taken injections on my shoulder. It does take a little bit of time to settle down but when it is settling down, the last thing I want to be doing is throwing from the deep. That is something I wouldn’t want to do if my shoulder is settling down from an injection,” Kumble told Cricketnext. 

“If both of them were not available then you didn't have a choice but to go with four fast bowlers because Kuldeep requires another spinner at the other end. I believe that Kuldeep requires that because he is still young and being the lead spinner is too much of a risk, but ideally you would want someone like a Jadeja or an Ashwin at the other end when Kuldeep is playing but I think Jaddu was fielding on a couple of days in Perth Test so I am not sure what the extent of injury was.”

Indian openers - KL Rahul and Murali Vijay have been clueless in the last one year and have been the main reason why Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara have been exposed to facing new balls, more often than not. While the calls to sack the duo at the earliest are rife over the last couple of months, Kumble has been of the opinion that is the mental aspect that is killing Rahul at the moment. The former Indian leg-spinner also asked to give a break to Rahul, and slot Mayank Agarwal directly into the team.

“We know what the potential of KL Rahul is. Unfortunately, he hasn't turned that into a performance, I mean consistent performances. Last year he was really good in terms of contributing to the Test matches as well. He had some big hundreds but unfortunately, he has fallen behind the wayside, I think it is just not his technique that he is probably doubting at the moment but also his mind. I think will be good to give him a break and perhaps make him play the longer format in domestic cricket and that is a good option for Rahul. I don't think you would be going with Rahul with this kind of mindset. I believe that Mayank Agarwal has done exceptionally well in domestic cricket, he has flown in, give him an opportunity, straight in.

“I can only think of two things, I have not been a batsman who has scored a lot of runs and if you look at that from a technical aspect. You know all I can think of is probably he has all these insecurities about not doing well in the recent past, those gremlins are all in your mind, you are constantly thinking about when is my big innings coming through, maybe those thoughts are in your mind and you are not watching the ball as closely enough from the hand. 

“Any batsman whether you are a top-order batsman, or a lower order batsman or a bowler who can just hang on. you need to just watch the ball really really closely from the bowler's hand. If you are not picking from there then you are slightly fraction of a second late. That we know, when the ball is being hurled at you at literally 145 to 150 KMPH you don't have a chance to even put the bat maybe that's why he is missing the ball and getting bowled,” Kumble added.