Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma playing a role in keeping Kuldeep Yadav out of India’s Playing XI?

Kuldeep Yadav’s exclusion from India’s Playing XI for the first Australia ODI has become a talking point. Despite ending up as India’s best bowler in the Asia Cup and West Indies Test series, Kuldeep somehow found himself out of favour in Perth.

The logical conclusion behind the left-arm wrist-spinner’s exclusion was India head coach Gautam Gambhir‘s fixation of playing all-rounders. Since he took over in July last year, we have seen Gambhir play two-dimensional players across formats. This has garnered some criticism, but he’s stuck to his guns.

Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli: Roadblock for Kuldeep Yadav’s inclusion?

However, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan doesn’t think that’s the only reason why Kuldeep isn’t playing. He reckons that the dubious form of three batters is playing a major role behind the spinner’s exclusion. Who are these players? Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Shreyas Iyer.

The three combined make three of India’s top four. This makes them the best batters the Men in Blue have. But the issue is that they hadn’t played an international match since March.

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While Shreyas has played some first-class and List A matches since the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 ended, that’s not the case for Rohit and Kohli. Naturally, the senior pros were rusty, and it showed in the Perth ODI.

Irfan thinks that Gambhir and India ODI captain Shubman Gill aren’t certain of these three, and that’s why they have to play all-rounders in Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, and Axar Patel. Had they been in form, Kuldeep might have featured on October 19 for India.

“We will never judge Rohit and Virat by their performances, and no one should either, because they are great players. But you have to do the things that are needed, you have to complete the processes, and you have to play matches. In this regard, they have fallen behind. If they had played some matches before coming and shown some form, the team management might have thought seven batters are enough, and we can include Kuldeep Yadav. But now, since the team is unsure of the form of three players (Virat, Rohit, and Shreyas), it is not happening,” Irfan said on his YouTube channel.

The post Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma playing a role in keeping Kuldeep Yadav out of India’s Playing XI? appeared first on Inside Sport India.