Kuldeep Yadav was once again the unlucky player as he was axed from the Indian team for the second Test against New Zealand in Pune.
The 29 year old has not been able to find a permanent place in the Indian playing XI, always getting the boot whenever the combination has been juggled with.
Since making his debut in 2017, the highly rated Kuldeep has featured in just 13 Tests in seven years, picking up 56 wickets with four five-wicket hauls.
The only time the left-arm wrist spinner has consistently got game time in his career was playing four Tests in a row against England earlier this year.
The wrist spinner made most of the rare opportunity -- picking up 19 wickets in four Tests at an average (20.16) better than Ravichandran Ashwin (26 wickets at 24.80) and Ravindra Jadeja (19 wickets at 25.05).
He came up with a match-winning in the fifth and final Test against England in Dharamsala, picking up a five-wicket haul as the hosts won by an innings and 64 runs.
However, the joy didn't last long as he was left out of both Tests against Bangladesh last month when India switched back to playing three seamers.
He made it back to the playing XI for the first Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru, where once again he outshone Ashwin, picking up 3/99, while Jadeja also bagged 3/72.
The New Zealand batters found it very difficult to pick Kuldeep's variations as the spinner was clearly unlucky not to end up with more wickets on a pitch which didn't have much for the spinners.
He could have proved to be more than handful in Pune, where the black soil pitch has been aiding the spinners right from the start.
However, India replaced Kuldeep with spin all-rounder Washington Sundar, as they reasoned that it was a move to deal with the number of left-handers in the New Zealand team.
Tamil Nadu's Sundar, 25, did well in the Ranji Trophy match against Delhi, stroking a brilliant 152 while picking up six wickets in the game. He returns to the Test team after three years, having last played in the memorable series triumph in Australia in 2020-2021, where he scored a crucial 62 in the series decider in Brisbane while picking up four wickets. He would go on to score unbeaten half-centuries in his next two Tests against England in 2021 but fell out of favour in red ball cricket.
India made a couple of more changes as the fit-again Shubman Gill replaced K L Rahul, while Akash Deep came in for the struggling Mohammed Siraj.
Batting great Sunil Gavaskar was unclearly unhappy with the changes.
'It was a bit panic, you don't make three changes in a team unless there are injuries.
'They are worried about their batting, more than his bowling they want to use his batting down the order as a bit of cushion,' Gavaskar said during commentary for Jio Cinema.
'There has been a lot of talk about the left-handers in the New Zealand team. And if you are thinking about that I would have picked someone like Kuldeep, who gets the ball to turn away from the left-handers. He is pretty handy with the bat as well, but obviously not as heavy a scorer as Washington,' he added.
'The Kuldeep Yadav change is very surprising. Maybe it is a question of the left-handers and the concept of having an off-spinner and an extra off-spinner. Kuldeep Yadav, the variety that he provides, he didn't have too many runs to bowl at (in the Bengaluru Test), something which a spinner needs in a Test match situation,' stated Murali Kartik, himself a spinner.
However, Sanjay Manjrekar offered a different perspective on Kuldeep's omission.
'Common sense selection. In-form seamer in. When pitch is offering a lot, you don't need an artiste like Kuldeep, a tall, quick, finger spinner will do,' Manjrekar tweeted.
