Will Asia Cup match-winner Kuldeep Yadav feature in India’s XI?:First West Indies Test in Ahmedabad raises combination concerns for Men in Blue

Ahead of the two-match Test series against West Indies from October 2, Team India’s lineup is almost finalised with Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul on the opening end. Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, and Washington Sundar in the middle. Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are expected to be the sure shots in terms of pacers. However, the spin battery is still needed in this squad, and the combination confusion has become trickier with the Narendra Modi Stadium’s green pitch expected to favour the seamers. So should Indian management go with one of the most skilled spinners in the team, Kuldeep Yadav, or Axar, Jadeja, Washington, who can not only bowl but also add runs to the scoreboard in case the upper order suffers a distress? The addition to this list is Nitish Kumar Reddy, who bowls seam and bats as well. Let’s take a look at India’s best choice… Kuldeep or Axar- Who can secure the spot? For most of the home Test games, India have entered the series with three bowling all-rounders. However, on a pitch favouring the seamers, the count might stop at two. For now, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja are the top contenders for this spot with their batting abilities and capacity to present a bowling challenge to opponents. So Kuldeep and Axar don’t stand a chance if India goes with two spinners in the first Test, while if management goes with three spinners, Kuldeep is likely to get the nod. The reason is primarily the number of deliveries in his left-arm wristspin arsenal. Even without the help of the surface, he can spin both ways, and he showed this in Dharamsala last year. Notably, he got five wickets on Day 1 against England when India’s finger spinners found little assistance from the surface. Also, he ended as Asia Cup 2025’s top wicket-taker with 17 wickets. But that doesn’t put Axar out of the equation. How? Axar Patel stands tall for playing 11 berth vs West Indies Against Kuldeep’s deadly wicket-taking ability, Axar cannot be ignored for two reasons. One, Ahmedabad is his hometown, and he has taken five-wicket hauls three times here (Against England in 2021). Another reason is that he has shown, even in white-ball cricket, that he has evolved as a bowler. One of the intangible aspects of his bowling is the pace variations that he has been making in recent years, with better control over length. Who will hold the second spot? Prasidh or Nitish Reddy? Since the pace is expected to favour the pacers, Bumrah and Siraj will make it to the playing 11. But Nitish Kumar Reddy and Prasidh Krishna’s spot lies in contention. Reddy can bat while Prasidh has a better record at Narendra Modi Stadium. He has nine wickets in three ODIs here – all against West Indies, for what it’s worth – at an average of 7.55, and more T20 wickets here (20 at an economy of 7.89) than anywhere else. On Tuesday, Prasidh beat the bat consistently at the nets while getting through a solid bowling workload alongside Siraj and Reddy. However, Bumrah, Axar and Kuldeep, who have only just landed in India after the Asia Cup, did not bowl in the nets. The other seam option is the Reddy. The flexibility that Jadeja and Washington offer allows India to use Reddy in two ways. As X, Reddy can work as a batter, with either Prasidh or a third spinner taking the Y slot As Y, he would be expected to play as a third seamer, with India picking a specialist batter in Devdutt Padikkal – or a fourth allrounder in Axar. Head coach Gambhir usually favours more batters, but it will be worth watching how he turns out the combination against the West Indies tomorrow.