Seeing Manav Suthar finish India’s tour of Sri Lanka with the most wickets, and the uncapped offspinner Saransh Jain make his debut in Colombo, one question kept nagging: what does the future hold for Kuldeep Yadav? 

Has he fallen out of favour with the current management? Has his bowling dipped so much that he no longer fits India’s plans? Have his struggles with the bat finally caught up with him? 

However you slice it, being left out for the Colombo Test in favour of an uncapped spinner is a striking call.

When Ravichandran Ashwin hung up his boots in 2024, it seemed like Kuldeep’s moment had finally arrived to cement himself as India’s premier spinner. Yet somehow, 19 wickets in six Tests, and an average of 26 apiece and a strike-rate of 44, since Ashwin’s exit hasn’t cut it. 

Meanwhile, others have flourished alongside him. Suthar picked up six wickets on debut back in June. In the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, he claimed ten. Kuldeep, by contrast, managed just a single wicket in that match — and even that owed more to a brilliant Shubman Gill catch than to any real threat with the ball. 

By the second Test, he was out of the XI, replaced by Jain making his debut.

India’s next assignment is New Zealand, where spin barely factors in. Ravindra Jadeja will get the nod there, and Suthar has an outside shot at inclusion given his batting. The real litmus test for Kuldeep’s future, though, will come next year when Australia tour for a five-match series. Three spinners at home is the usual template, but whether Kuldeep still fits into that picture is anyone’s guess.

Has he been dealt a rough hand? Without question. Should he have featured in more than 19 Tests across nine years? Absolutely. It’s genuinely hard to justify how sparingly he’s been used given a Test average of 23 per wicket. 

But equally, he hasn’t developed the way the situation demanded, and being so thoroughly upstaged by a debutant like Suthar has left him looking distinctly ordinary.