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‘It’s very tempting…’: Shubman Gill speaks about his wish to play Kuldeep Yadav, but also needing Depth in batting
Indian Test captain Shubman Gill has stated that it is always tempting for him to play Kuldeep Yadav in the XI, but also needing depth in batting lineup at the same time.
Last Updated on - July 7, 2025 5:34 PM IST
India’s Test captain Shubman Gill has said that it is always tempting to have a wicket-taking spinner like Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI, but Washington Sundar had to be named for the Edgbaston Test against England in order to add batting depth.
The decision to include Washington Sundar in the XI was sort of a gamble, which turned out successful as the left-hander contributed with both the bat and the ball in different moments of the game. Indian team is going to go with the same approach for the 3rd Test in Lord’s as well.
“It’s very tempting when you have a bowler like Kuldeep. One of the reasons why I wanted to play Washington was because he gives us the batting depth,” said Gill after India levelled the series with an emphatic win.
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Gill feels the spinners give more control than pacers when the Dukes ball gets soft and unresponsive. “As much as we expected, even on the fifth day, the ball was not moving that much from the middle, it was just moving from the rough. We thought that…maybe on our fifth day, a spinner will give us more control if the ball is moving from the wicket. And especially on such (flat) wickets, sometimes spin gives you more control than fast bowling. So that was our mindset.”