Last Updated on 3 months by Charbel Coorey
India, especially coach Gautam Gambhir, have come in for criticism after selecting a bowling attack featuring neither of Jasprit Bumrah or Kuldeep Yadav for the Edgbaston Test against England.
Whether Bumrah would feature was a hot topic of debate after Headingley, given the team management confirmed he would play three of the five Tests. However, for India to leave Kuldeep Yadav out in favour of all-rounders has not sat well with India fans. The attack, on paper, lacks firepower to be able to take 20 wickets.
India, despite scoring 835 runs in the first Test, have opted for more batting depth. This mindset cost them dearly in the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where Washington Sundar was not a factor on a spicy SCG surface.
For someone who speaks so regularly of the importance of taking 20 wickets – even as recently as post-Headingley – Gautam Gambhir doesn’t select teams for it. “Taking 20 wickets is the only way to win Test matches,” he said. “Batting runs alone can’t win Tests. You can score 1,000 runs, but unless you take 20 wickets, you don’t win Test matches.”
Yet, at the toss, Shubman Gill confirmed what many fans suspected. “We were very tempted to play [Kuldeep] but looking at the last match we wanted to add some depth to the batting,” said the Indian captain after England won the toss and chose to bowl.
Ravi Shastri was disappointed with India’s decision to rest Bumrah. “You have the best fast bowler in the world and you make him sit out after seven days’ rest. It’s something very hard to believe and I can’t agree with it,” he said on Sky Sports.
Reactions: Gautam Gambhir and India criticised for defensive team selection, including leaving Kuldeep Yadav out
Tom Moody led the chorus of discontent on social media around India’s team selection.
“India’s selection for this Test is baffling. No Bumrah is one thing, but to only have 5 specialist batsmen is a gamble,” Moody wrote on X (formerly Twitter. “The fixation on all-rounders who are there to offer depth with bat and ball has never worked. Specialists are always going to offer more over a Test.”
“The reason they mentioned to not play Kuldeep is shocking icl unreal coward mentality from this coach [Gambhir] and captain [Gill],” one fan wrote. “My goodness…. Adding more depth to the batting that scored more than 700 runs in their last test match. Why can’t you just sack Gambhir right away BCCI?” wrote another.
Here are some of the reactions to the India XI, including disappointment for Sai Sudharsan who was dropped after one Test.
