Sourav Ganguly isn't satisfied with the Indian team selection for the Lord's Test

After three days of the second Test between England and India at Lord’s, the visiting team is staring down the barrel of another defeat. The Brits, courtesy of their all-round performances, are in a dominating positing with two days remaining in the match. The Poms have stacked a lead of 250 runs in the first innings and would want to further pile on India’s agony as the match goes ahead.

Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, resorted to playing Kuldeep Yadav in place of Umesh Yadav and the decision seemed to have backfired a tad. The conditions have been favourable for seam-bowling and Kuldeep has only bowled nine overs out of the 81. To make things worse, on a pitch which was deemed to be dry underneath, the spinners remained wicketless after toiling hard for 26 overs.

Let’s give him the benefit of doubt here

In the meantime, Sourav Ganguly, who is currently a part of the commentary panel for the series, reckons that Umesh should’ve featured in the eleven for the ongoing match bearing in mind the overcast weather conditions. However, Ganguly, 46, also supported Kohli and mentioned that the Delhi-born cricketer doesn’t deserve to be blamed for one ‘odd mistake’.

“Yes, we needed the extra pacer on this pitch. It’s true that till the ball rolls, it’s very difficult to say how it’s going to play, but Umesh was needed on this pitch. My idea was to go with my best five bowlers.

Kuldeep is a good bowler but on these conditions, the extra pacer would probably have been the right option. You could see the conditions were heavily in the pacers’ favour, especially after the rain,” Ganguly told The Times of India (TOI).

“It happens sometimes. Kohli does a lot of things right, there can be the odd mistake. Let’s give him the benefit of doubt here,” the former cricketer added.

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