3 changes India must make in the third ODI against New Zealand

3. Kuldeep Yadav

The best invention of Virat Kohli has to be the spinning pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Playing together in white-ball cricket in most parts of 2018, the duo not only took the opponent batsmen by surprise with their variations but also sidelined the already-famed pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. Jadeja, though, has managed to earn his place back but more so as an all-rounder. 

Kuldeep and Chahal, or Kulcha as they are known, had wreaked havoc against New Zealand in India’s tour of 2019. They had taken 17 wickets together and had the New Zealand middle-order reeling with fear. But this time, the decision to play either of them just to accommodate an extra batsman has taken many by surprise and it is high time that Kohli plays his two best spinners together. 

While Kuldeep played the first one and took two wickets, Chahal replaced him in the second and returned with three scalps. But the matter of the fact remains that India lost both the matches. Though Navdeep Saini played a gem of an innings in Auckland, his main role is to take wicket which he failed to do. Thus it becomes easier for the team management to decide whom to be dropped for Kuldeep and Chahal to play together.