India should play with both Kuldeep and Chahal : Harbhajan singh
India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has recommended that the Indian team should include both wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the playing XI when taking on New Zealand in the second ODI in Auckland on Saturday.
India are currently trailing the three-match ODI series 0-1 after New Zealand rode on Ross Taylor’s 21st hundred to chase down their highest total in ODIs on Wednesday.
Chahal was not included in the playing XI for that match and while Kuldeep took two wickets, he was also conceded 84 runs and was thus the most expensive among the Indian bowlers.
Kuldeep and Chahal enjoyed great success in 2018 bamboozling oppositions one after the other. The duo fondly referred as Kulcha, went on to lead a wrist-spin revolution in Indian cricket as finger-spinners like R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja increasingly found themselves out of contention of the playing XIs in the shorter formats.
“I would like to see both spinners playing together — Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal,” Harbhajan said on Star Sports.
“This New Zealand team will play fast bowlers on any given day and they will take anyone on. But when it comes to playing spin, it has always been a case for them. You can get those wickets in the middle overs. So I would like to see both the spinners play together. Maybe leave out Kedar Jadhav and play an extra spinner,” he said.
Notable, Jadhav’s last international wicket came during the 2nd ODI vs Australia in Nagpur early last year. Since then, he has got to bowl in 9 of the 16 ODIs he has played but failed to pick up a single wicket while his economy rate has also shot up to 6.95 from 4.90 earlier.
