India have released Kuldeep Yadav and brought in their preferred third-spinner Axar Patel into the squad for the second Test against Sri Lanka, starting March 12. This is the only change for the hosts ahead of the D/N pink-ball encounter in Bangalore, where they’ll be eyeing a 2-0 whitewash for the series.
If he plays, Axar will make his comeback to the international game after being out for three months since the second Test against New Zealand in Mumbai last November. The left-arm spinner was ruled out of action because of a sheen injury, which followed an unfortunate bout with Covid-19.
Going down with a double blow, Axar was absent from the tour of South Africa, the limited-overs matches against West Indies and Sri Lanka and also the first Test in Mohali. The BCCI had said Axar’s fitness will be assessed before the second Test to ascertain his availability. With that out of the way, the 28-year-old is back in the reckoning.
India won the first Test by an innings & 222 runs with their spin pros Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja taking 15 wickets between them. But the team’s third-spinner Jayant Yadav went wicketless, which makes it likely that Axar will swap right back into the playing XI if the surface command that India persist with the three-pronged spin attack alongside two seamers.
The Gujarat spinner has been phenomenal in whites since the start of his Test career last year. Axar has run through England and New Zealand in home conditions in his five-Test career so far, taking a whopping 36 wickets at a measly average of just 11.86. The tally includes his 11-fer in the pink-ball D/N Test played in Ahmedabad last year.
If the pitch is even slightly dry, Axar becomes a lethal prospect, with his unrelenting accuracy and high speeds only further accentuating the impact of the glossier pink-ball, giving batters no time to make late adjustments.
From Kuldeep’s perspective, being released will be a sad reminder of his fall in the pecking order for spinners in Test cricket. Back in January 2019, when he bagged a five-fer in the Sydney Test, the then head coach Ravi Shastri called him India’s first-choice spinner abroad. Since then, however, the left-arm wristspinner has added only one Test cap to his kitty.
