Former legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar slammed Team India’s approach to load the playing XI with all-rounders for batting depth in the second Test against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Skipper Shubman Gill made three changes to the side that lost by five wickets in the series opener, as the all-rounder pair of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar were included.

Team India faced a major selection conundrum with several factors coming into play in the build-up to the second Test. With Jasprit Bumrah’s workload, bolstering the bowling unit to pick 20 wickets, and adding batting depth to avoid collapses, all being pertinent issues that needed to be fixed, the management made some radical calls.

In a bold move, the visitors decided not to include both Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav despite being 0-1 down in the series. The visitors opted for the batting security that the pair of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar would provide in the lower middle-order.

Sunil Gavaskar failed to understand the logic behind the decision, feeling that the bowling department should have been given precedence, considering the circumstances. He was also ‘baffled’ over Kuldeep Yadav’s omission.

“I’m a little baffled that Kuldeep wasn’t picked, because on a pitch like this, where everybody says there’s a little more turn,” Gavaskar said on Sony Sports Network (via India Today).

“If your top-order batters are not giving you the runs you expect, then Washington at 7 or Nitish Reddy at 8 won’t necessarily fix that, because those weren’t the batters who failed you in the first Test. You scored 830 runs. You didn’t score 380 in two innings — it was 830-plus. That’s a lot of runs. So, where you needed strengthening was in the wicket-taking department, not so much in the batting,” he added.

Team India captain Shubman Gill revealed at the toss that there was a temptation to include Kuldeep Yadav in the mix, but the need for batting depth tipped the scales in Washington Sundar’s favor.

Team India faring relatively well in first session of Day 1 in ENG vs IND 2025 2nd Test

The Indian openers had to deal with a tricky start with overcast conditions and Chris Woakes nipping the ball around on his home ground. The right-arm pacer dismissed KL Rahul for just 2 in the ninth over, to deliver the first breakthrough for the hosts.

But since then, the sun has come out, and the batters have eased into the clash. The pacers have also erred in their length, resulting in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Karun Nair making the most of it. At the time of writing, the Men in Blue are placed at 63-1 after 17 overs.