After 22 months, Kuldeep made a spectacular comeback. Taking eight wickets in a match and scored a brave 40 in a crucial lower-order partnership with Ashwin. In addition, he was named the match’s man of the match in their first Test at Chattogram. Kuldeep was benched in favor of Jaydev Unadkat, an additional seamer, following his match-winning performance in India’s 188-run victory in the Chattogram Test. This decision was criticized by players like Sunil Gavaskar.
I don’t regret making the choice. The right move was taken. If you look at the wickets, our fast bowlers also took a lot of wickets and were helped a lot. During the post-match media interaction, Rahul defended his decision by saying, “There was a lot of inconsistent bounce.” As India struggling at 74 for 7 while chasing a hard 145 on a challenging fourth-day surface. Ravichandran Ashwin and Shreyas Iyer miraculously pulled off an astonishing three-wicket chase with an unbroken eighth-wicket partnership of 71 runs.
After 22 months, Kuldeep made a spectacular comeback. Taking eight wickets in a match and scored a brave 40 in a crucial lower-order partnership with Ashwin. In addition, he was named the match’s man of the match in their first Test at Chattogram. The team felt Kuldeep’s absence most acutely in Bangladesh’s second innings when India struggled to bowl out the home team despite a crucial lead of 87 runs in the first innings. Bangladesh made 231, despite being 70 for four.
In hindsight, Rahul stated that if he had the option of the “Impact Player” rule. Which will make its debut in the IPL the following year. If the Impact Player rule had been in place, as it is in the IPL, Kuldeep would have undoubtedly been brought in for the second innings, according to Rahul.
Each team can make one substitution during a match under the Impact Player of “Super Sub” rule, which was introduced in Big Bash 2020 and also used in the Syed Mushtaq Ali domestic T20s this season.
At the toss, each team will bring four substitutes, and any one of them can play as an “Impact Player.”
Rahul’s two-Test series ended disastrously (57 runs, average: 14.25), and 45 runs from Virat Kohli; 15.00), but the stand-in skipper blamed the swift switch from white ball cricket to red-ball cricket for the issue. When you play in all three formats, switching between them can be a little tricky. For me, it takes some time to get back into the groove and comprehend, to refocus your mind on what was working properly. It’s obvious that this series didn’t fare well. To me, that is okay.
I gave it my best shot, but it didn’t pan out. I can look ahead and see what I can do better next time, he continued. Rahul attributed it to their constrained schedule, stating. Sadly, our schedules are too congested for some players who play in all formats to do that and adapt too quickly. “However, that is our challenge. We would have preferred significantly more time between a red ball and white ball to adjust, refocus on playing red-ball cricket, cultivate patience, and perform.”
With two fifties and an average of 101, Iyer had a successful series. He was the subsequent driving run-getter with 202 runs behind Cheteshwar Pujara (222) and his guaranteeing presence, particularly in the subsequent innings quieted things down. He has been a member of the team for quite some time. I’m so proud of him because he seized the opportunity. He played exceptionally well today.