Kuldeep conundrum continues for India

IT'S difficult being Kuldeep Yadav. Even more so with each passing day with your team on a downward spiral and you cannot do much other than watching the horror show helplessly from outside the boundary ropes.

- FIROZ MIRZA @ Manchester

For the fourth time on a trot, the left-arm wrist spinner could not find a place in the playing XI in this England tour.

The team management instead decided to go with its approach of adding more depth to the batting department by including two all-rounders.

On the Old Trafford surface, which is known to give some purchase to a specialist spinner as the game progresses, India decided to bring in fast bowling-all-rounder Shardul Thakur in place of injured Nitish Kumar Reddy. Agreed, they did have spin bowling all-rounders in form of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, but the former has impressed more as a batter than as a bowler in the series so far. He scalped four wickets in the ongoing Test, but by then England had already taken a huge first innings lead of 311 runs to push the visitors to the wall.