IND vs WI | Sanjay Bangar urges Virat Kohi and Ravi Shastri to back Kuldeep Yadav
BCCI
Former Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar is hopeful that skipper Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri will back Kuldeep Yadav as he believes wrist spinners are very important in T20s. Kuldeep was dropped from India's T20 squad for the South Africa and Bangladesh series after a poor IPL 2019.
India's wrist spin-twins Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have been instrumental in the ODI team's success over the past two years but the same cannot be said about the T20s. Skipper Virat Kohli in a press conference before the T20 series against South Africa justified the dropping of Kuldeep and Chahal from the squad by saying that he felt the need of India batting deep till number 10 and that both of them do not have that batting ability required. Along with that, Kuldeep had a very poor IPL where he was dropped from the Kolkata Knight Riders team halfway through the tournament.
Chahal was impressive in the T20 series versus Bangladesh and thus is picked for the West Indies T20 series that starts on December 6. Kuldeep, too has been given the nod as far as a place in the T20 squad for the West Indies series is concerned and former batting coach Sanjay Bangar is hopeful that Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri will back the left-arm chinaman as he is a match-winner.
“I’m a massive Kuldeep Yadav fan and in terms of strike rates you see he is the quickest to 100 ODI wickets and even in the shorter format, if you look at the match we won in England, he picked up 5 wickets at a time where the opposition was running away from the match," Bangar said on the show 'Game Plan' that was aired on Star Sports.
“I wouldn’t count out Kuldeep Yadav, it’s just that he’s had a couple of poor games in the IPL last season. For him, this IPL is going to be a massive factor and if he does really well, it will be very hard to keep him out,” he further asserted.
Bangar also understood the point Kohli made about having a deep batting order and believed that there was a requirement of an all-rounder at number 7 who will bowl four overs and provide late cameos with the bat to help the team reach fighting totals.
“You require a wrist spinner in the T20 format, it has been a very major component in India’s success wherein 2 wrist spinners played a massive role in most of the ODI and T20I series the team has had across conditions hence you will need a bowler who is capable of bowling the complete 4 overs and also bat at No.7," Bangar stated.
Krunal Pandya has been an asset to the Mumbai Indians in the IPL as he plays as a floater in the batting order and bats wherever the team needs him to bat and the big-hitting ability adds another dimension to his game along with the left-arm off-spin that he provides. But somehow, he has not managed to show the same form for the Indian T20 side as many times he has failed to complete his four overs and has also not been able to provide late impetus to the batting when required.
On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja has been in fantastic form ever since he played that stellar knock in the World Cup semifinal against New Zealand which almost won India the game. he has batted consistently well in both home and away Tests whenever he got the opportunity and has shown a lot of maturity in his shot-selection. Bangar believes that with his big-hitting ability, Jadeja must get a chance ahead of Krunal in that number 7 role in India's T20 side.
“Hence, I feel Ravinder Jadeja edges over Krunal Pandya here as Krunal hasn’t been able to deliver the complete 4 overs at times and Jadeja has been in great form recently,” he concluded.
