No regrets picking Nadeem ahead of Kuldeep: Kohli

TIL Desk Sports/ India captain Virat Kohli did not regret picking Shahbaz Nadeem over Kuldeep Yadav but felt the support spinners had let the team down in their opening Test defeat by England on Tuesday. Left-arm orthodox spinner Nadeem managed four wickets overall, including two as England amassed 578 in the first innings to take early charge of the conTest, while all-rounder Washington Sundar went wicketless.

Kohli did not name the duo but when asked if he felt the support spinners had failed to put pressure on England, the India captain said, “Yeah, that’s a fair assessment. “You need your bowling unit collectively to step up and create enough pressure on the opposition and we probably didn’t achieve that in this game.

“In the second innings we put enough pressure on them, but not enough to win a Test match, not enough to come back into the game.” Former England captain Michael Vaughan was among those surprised by what he called the “ridiculous decision” not to play Kuldeep, but Kohli said he wanted variety having picked off-spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Sundar.