Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag expressed displeasure over the Indian team sitting out spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the playing XI from the first ODI against England.
Virender Sehwag backs Yuzvendra Chahal
India handed debuts to Prasidh Krishan and Krunal Pandya, while Kuldeep Yadav made his return to the ODI team on Tuesday. But Chahal, who struggled in the T20I series to get wickets, was left out.
Speaking on Cricbuzz, Sehwag said that there may be “partiality” in the selection criteria for batsmen and bowlers.
“You snub bowlers after one game, but you gave 4 matches to KL Rahul then sat him out in the 5th game. So, if you give bowlers only that many chances, they will have poor performances,” Sehwag said.
“If this was [Jasprit] Bumrah and he had 4 moderate outings, will you have thought to exclude Bumrah as well? No, you would have said ‘he’s a good bowler, he will make a comeback.’
“Yuzvendra Chahal is your top T20 bowler, he gives you wickets, and he got 2-3 bad games and now is out of the team. One is a top bowler in ICC rankings and the other is the top batter, so why partiality in them? I don’t understand this concept,” Sehwag added.
“Yes, if you have lost a series because of a bowler pair because they are not taking wickets, like it was Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin once,” he further added.
“We lost the Champions Trophy final and in that tournament, the bowlers didn’t take many wickets in the middle overs. So then there was a shift that these two need a break and new wrist spinners need to be tried because wrist spinners are better.
“Now, you have removed wrist-spinner Chahal and have brought back a finger spinner. I think it’s also because to strengthen the batting,” Sehwag signed off.
