The Indian management’s decision to leave out Kuldeep Yadav for the first ODI against England continues to draw criticism from several corners. Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna and Gurnoor Brar rocked the hosts early, and England were reduced to 80/5 at one stage; however, the lack of a quality spinner in the middle overs allowed England to stage a comeback through Joe Root and Liam Dawson. The Men in Blue gave away the early advantage they secured by dismissing the opening six batters with nothing much on the board.
Axar Patel, who has been on a downward spiral since the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season, once again failed to bowl probing lines and lengths, and he was milked for runs by both Root and Dawson. The same was the case with Washington Sundar, as he too leaked runs and built no pressure.
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When Axar was being hit around the park quite easily, former India pacer Varun Aaron gave a much-needed reality check to the Indian management, saying the team needs to have a wicket-taking bowler in the middle overs, and Bumrah cannot be asked to do everything in a game.
“India has Kuldeep Yadav. Axar Patel is bowling arm balls into the batter and bowling all those sliders. You have to play around with your speeds and the seam position to get something out of the wicket,” said Varun on commentary.
“The English batters are setting up to play Axar as an off-spinner. It is very obvious he is not going to turn the ball past the batter. How do you get wickets in the middle overs?Jasprit Bumrah cannot be your answer to all your problems,” he added.
Abhishek Nayar’s viewpoint
India, under Gautam Gambhir, has time and again preferred a longer batting lineup and more all-rounders. This has led to a compromise in quality in the bowling department. In the opening ODI against England, India went with three all-rounders – Sundar, Axar and Shivam Dube while specialists Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep warmed the bench.
Abhishek Nayar, the former India assistant coach, gave a contradictory view to Aaron, saying the problem with having someone like Bumrah is that the team knows his quality and always depends on him to provide breakthroughs.
“Well, Varun sometimes, he (Bumrah) is the answer to everything. Sometimes, the problem of having Bumrah is you always know and hope he’s the one to get you those answers,” said Nayar.
The first ODI between India and England saw Harry Brook winning the toss and opting to bat. Opening batters Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell put on more than 50 runs for the opening wicket; but Gurnoor, Bumrah and Prasidh took five wickets for 19 runs and England was reduced to 80/5.
However, Root and Dawson revived England’s innings and the hosts posted a competitive total on the board.