KOLKATA: In the pre-match press conference ahead of the first Test between India and South Africa, Shubman Gill was answering a question answered by as many as four previous Test captains (permanent or stand-in). Kuldeep Yadav's place in the Test XI.
Would he? Won't he? Gill let it slip that the management were weighing options. It would either be the extra spinner or an extra all-rounder. It remains one of Indian cricket's blindspots that there still appears a question mark around one of cricket's sui generis in terms of uniqueness and talents.
A left-arm wristspinner is a unicorn in itself. A left-arm wristspinner with his control is an outlier, a dot in the top right-hand corner if you were to plot his skill sets in relation to other active red-ball spinners in the world today.
On the morning of the Test, just before the toss, Yadav took the ball and was practicing his conventional deliveries, the one coming back into the right-hander. Axar Patel, one of the all-rounders the team management had in mind to take Yadav's place, was also doing something similar.
Would it be the spinning all-rounder? Would it be the spinner?
Narrator voice: a secret third option.
Just after the toss when the team sheets were revealed, the hosts had both Yadav as well as Patel. But the questionable selection calls didn't stop there. At some level, it never ends, it's a cross the management has to bear with.
But, on Friday morning, the selection committee, the management and the leadership group willingly put forth a XI not often seen in these parts. A four spinner strategy.
With Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar joining Patel and Yadav, they decided to let go a specialist batter shot. B Sai Sudharsan, who hasn't had the greatest introduction to Test cricket (average of 30.33 after five Tests), was demoted with Sundar carded at No. 3. The spinning all-rounder has never batted there in India whites but it's not a new position for him. He has come out to bat in that position for Tamil Nadu and in fact scored a Ranji 100 against Delhi last year.
“It was a decision by the management, and I’m grateful for the opportunity," he had told reporters after that innings in Delhi. "I knew it was going to be a good opportunity for me to bat at No. 3."
It's why the wider cricketing fraternity -- including the likes of WV Raman -- have opined that Sundar has a future up the order in Tests (in 15 previous Tests, he has never come out to bat higher than No. 5).
If Sundar gives the team that flexibility, Patel and Jadeja can be considered as genuine batting all-rounders, especially in these conditions. With Yadav carded to come in at No. 9, this team does bat deep even with four spinners in the XI.
The last time India did this came against England at Nagpur in 2012 when Jadeja debuted. Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin were the other spinners as the management sought for something new as the series had already been won by England.
Since then, they have generally had Ashwin and Jadeja before Patel had become a part of the furniture when playing in India since 2021. Under the management fronted by Gill-Gambhir, they have not been afraid to try different things to make home a fortress. Against West Indies, they played a seam-bowling all-rounder in the form of Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Under the new leadership group, a group that wants all-rounders because of the greater batting depth they offer, could this be the way forward? On Thursday, when Ryan ten Doeschate addressed a question on team combination, he said it would be horses for courses. "I always say strategy comes first," the assistant coach had said. "The primary thing is to set up a strategy to win the game..."
But then, in the end, most of them weren't required. When you have Jasprit Bumrah in your line-up.