India recorded a five-wicket defeat against England in the first Test of the five-match series at Headingley. The visitors suffered batting collapses in both of their innings, but still managed to set up a fighting target of 371 for the hosts during the final session of the fourth day. The Three Lions would eventually go on to achieve the target on Day 5 and take a lead of 1-0 in the series.
One of the Indian players whose performance in the match drew a lot of criticism was Shardul Thakur. The all-rounder was poor with the bat, getting dismissed cheaply for one and four in the first and second innings respectively. Though he surprisingly wasn't given a lot of overs to bowl in both of England's innings, he ended up underperforming when he did get the chance.
Shardul wasn't able to impress with both the bat and the ball
In the first innings, Shardul gave away 38 runs in the six overs that he bowled and even though he picked up the big wickets of Ben Duckett and Harry Brook in the second innings, he ended up being on the expensive side, leaking 51 runs in 10 overs. Ahead of the second Test of the series which is set to be played at Edgbaston in Birmingham from July 2, former England cricketer Monty Panesar believes that Shardul should be dropped and should be replaced by Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI.
"At Edgbaston, India could probably play (Ravindra) Jadeja and could actually go for the X-factor spinner in Kuldeep Yadav...we know that the Edgbaston wicket does turn a little bit. So you have that bit of an X-factor, which I think would be a better option. There's something about him," Panesar told PTI Videos.
"He doesn't need turning tracks. This IPL showed that even without exaggerated turn, he can bowl tough lines that make life difficult for batters," he added.
Panesar also pointed out that there is no reason to play Shardul if he will not be given a good amount of overs to bowl. He even stated that Kuldeep is a better option than Ravindra Jadeja as the former has more of an 'X-factor'.
"If Shardul Thakur is only going to bowl six to eight overs and not give you 15 overs in the day, there's no point in playing him," Panesar stated.
"I think they need to play Kuldeep because he has more of an X factor. There's something about him. Jadeja bowls too quickly. So I think, yeah, they need to bring in Kuldeep Yadav instead of Jadeja. He becomes the main attacking option," he added.
Notably, after making his Test debut back in 2017, Kuldeep has only played in 13 matches in the format so far. However, his record is still quite impressive, picking up a total of 56 scalps including 4 five-wicket hauls and a strike-rate of 37.3.