Ashwin Has an 'Issue' With How India Treat Kuldeep — And the South Africa Numbers Prove He's Right

There's a particular kind of cruelty reserved for match-winners in Indian cricket: you don't drop them for poor form. You drop them for somebody else's batting ability. Kuldeep Yadav — 194 ODI wickets at 26.83, the fastest Indian spinner to 100 ODI wickets, the highest wicket-taker at the 2025 Asia Cup — has now sat out three of India's last four ODIs. Not because he's bowling badly. Because the team wants two fingerspinners who can hold a bat.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who knows a thing or two about being India's spin option, has had enough of watching it happen in silence.

At Edgbaston last Tuesday, India went into the first ODI against England with Axar Patel and Washington Sundar as their two spinners. Both are fingerspinners. Both can bat. Neither is a genuine wicket-taking threat in the way that Kuldeep's left-arm wrist spin is. The logic was clear: stack the batting, minimise the risk, treat spin as a containment option rather than an attacking weapon.

It worked — sort of. Axar was brilliant, taking 4 for 62 and scoring an unbeaten 57 that steered the chase. Washington scored an unbeaten fifty too but went wicketless in his four overs. India won by six wickets. On the surface, it validated the selection. Below the surface, it exposed the problem: India are building their spin strategy around batting insurance, not bowling penetration.

Ashwin spotted the contradiction immediately — and pointed at the team on the other side for the answer.

Ashwin's comparison isn't casual. England's spin blueprint for the 2027 World Cup cycle is one batting fingerspinner (Jacks) and one attacking wrist spinner (Rashid). It gives them batting depth through Jacks and wicket-taking threat through Rashid's leg spin. India, by contrast, are fielding two batting fingerspinners and leaving their most dangerous wrist spinner on the bench.

The irony is painful. India literally invented the modern wrist-spin revolution in ODIs. Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal terrorised batting line-ups through the 2017-2019 cycle. The wrist-spin twins were a tactical innovation other teams scrambled to copy. Now India have abandoned their own playbook — and England are the ones running a version of it.

This is where Ashwin's argument turns from opinion into cold logic. The 2027 ODI World Cup is in South Africa. Kuldeep Yadav's record against South Africa in ODIs reads like a cheat code: 31 wickets in 14 matches at an average of 16.58, with four four-wicket hauls. No bowler with 30-plus ODI wickets against the Proteas has a sub-21 average. Kuldeep doesn't just do well against South Africa — he is statistically the most destructive spinner anyone has sent to face them.

And India are leaving him out of ODIs eleven months before a World Cup on South African soil.

Ashwin's most pointed observation wasn't about who should be in the squad. It was about who shouldn't both be in the XI at the same time. Both Axar and Washington delivered with the bat at Edgbaston — both made unbeaten fifties. But Ashwin sees that as masking the problem, not solving it.

His logic is simple: you don't need two batting-capable fingerspinners and zero wrist spin. You need one fingerspinner who bats (Axar, based on Edgbaston form) and one attacking wrist spinner who takes wickets (Kuldeep). That's the balanced combination. That's what England are doing. That's what India used to do when they were winning bilateral series everywhere.

Instead, India have drifted into a safety-first spin selection that prioritises the ability to score 30 at number seven over the ability to take four wickets in the middle overs. In ODI cricket — particularly in South Africa, where conditions suit pace early and wrist spin in the middle — that's a miscalculation dressed up as balance.

This isn't happening in a vacuum. Since Gautam Gambhir took charge as head coach, India have systematically preferred all-rounders who contribute with the bat over specialist wicket-takers. Kuldeep has featured in only six of India's ten overseas ODIs during the Gambhir era. The rationale — batting depth — sounds logical until you look at the results: India have won just one of their last seven white-ball matches on this UK tour.

The irony compounds when you consider that former assistant coach Abhishek Nayar — who was sacked just weeks ago as part of the coaching staff exodus — had publicly urged the team management to back Kuldeep ahead of this series. Nayar, who worked with Kuldeep daily, saw what the stats confirm: a wrist spinner ranked sixth in the world isn't a luxury. He's a necessity.

With the BCCI review meeting scheduled for after the England tour ends, Kuldeep's treatment is no longer just a tactical question. It's a philosophical one. Is India building towards the 2027 World Cup with their best weapons, or are they building towards it with their safest options? Because in South Africa, against batting line-ups that can handle fingerspin all day, safe won't be enough.

The 2027 ODI World Cup is eleven months away. India have thirteen ODIs left before it begins — at most. Every one of those matches is an opportunity for Kuldeep to build rhythm, refine plans against specific batting line-ups, and enter the tournament match-ready. Or they're thirteen more opportunities for India to bench him for someone who can score a handy 30.

Ashwin has made the case. The numbers endorse it. The question now is whether the people making the team sheet are listening to the man who took 765 international wickets, or whether they'll keep prioritising batting insurance over match-winning spin.

Because when India walk out for their first World Cup match on South African soil next year, and the ball starts gripping and turning through the afternoon session, they won't be reaching for a fingerspinner who bats a bit. They'll be reaching for Kuldeep. The only question is whether they'll have given him enough cricket to be ready.