Could India have included these two stars for the final Test against Australia? 

The final Test match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia ended in a draw. It was a must-win game for the Indian team as it would have guaranteed them the final tickets to the World Test Championship. 

However, as New Zealand completed a last-ball victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test, that result is nonetheless guaranteed. But, what if Sri Lanka had won this game and tainted India’s hope of getting into the final? The Indian team failed yet again to deliver in a crucial match, and it almost cost them their spot had fate not intervened.

When these kinds of performances keep repeating over and over again, it makes you wonder where the Indian team is going wrong. For now, let’s just focus on where things went wrong for the Indian team in this Test match. 

Well, for starters, the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium for the final Test was not one that could have produced results. It was a dead pitch, with nothing to offer for the bowlers. The curators, in order to give bat and bowl a fair balance, created a pitch that was the exact opposite at Indore. In short, it was an overcorrection to what had happened earlier in the series. 

However, it was not all the pitch’s fault. The Indian team made a few selection faults too. The pitch was not offering any help to the finger spinners, but the commentators believed that wrist spinners could get something out of the dead pitch too. India went with three finger spinners; Ashwin, Jadeja, and Axar Patel. Out of these three, only Ashwin could have had any impact during the game, the rest looked clueless as to what to do. 

India had the services of Kuldeep Yadav in reserve, who was added to the squad but did not get a chance to play. The Ahmedabad pitch suited his skills and he could have been a valuable addition to the team. Kuldeep as a bowler relies more on his skills than the pitch. Kuldeep was a trump card India had, and they chose not to use him in the must-win game.

This has always been the case with Kuldeep. The left-arm chinaman comes into the team to replace injured bowlers, performs to the best of his caliber, and then gets dropped the very next game when the regular spinner is back. The same thing happened to him during the Bangladesh tour as well. In the first Test, Kuldeep wreaked havoc on the Bangladeshi batsmen and ended up picking 8 wickets in the game. However, he was dropped the very next game in order to make room for Jaydev Unadkat. 

A major factor that plays role in Kuldeep’s selection is his lack of batting skills. While Ashwin, Jadeja, and Axar can pitch in with the bat pretty well, Kuldeep is not very strong there. However, he makes up for it in his bowling by constantly picking up wickets and not letting the batsmen score. 

The Aussies have not had much experience with Kuldeep and he could have been used as a lethal weapon against them. Contrary to that, the southpaw was instead carrying drinks for the team. 

Another player that missed out on playing a single game during the test series was Jaydev Unadkat. Unadkat has had an amazing run in the domestic season in the last couple of years and was added to the Bangladesh tour as well where he got to play in the second test. He ended up picking 3 wickets during the game, but more importantly, he was able to create pressure on the Bangladeshi batsmen because of his variations. 

Unadkat’s immense experience on domestic pitches could have come in handy at Ahmedabad as well as the southpaw had played a lot of cricket there in the last few years. He could’ve created that off-angle against the Aussie batters and may have been an aggressive wicket-taking option for the Indian team. Instead, he too was carrying drinks for his peers. 

The Indian team is always known to stick with its winning eleven, no matter how each player performs individually. However, the Ahmedabad Test was a crucial one for the team and deserved more thought to be put into the selection process. 

Nonetheless, congratulations to team India for qualifying for the World Test Championship final. We hope the Indian team gives us their best cricket at the Oval in June. 

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