India's coach Gautam Gambhir has said that his team management rates Kuldeep Yadav "very highly", and that he is not being judged just by the number of wickets he takes. Kuldeep has been in the spotlight since he got no Test in the 10 India played in Australia and England. While the Australian pitches were extremely seam-friendly, his omission in England when India struggled for potency with the older ball stuck out more sorely. He was not played in the ODIs in England either when India were crying out for a point of difference in the middle overs.
While Kuldeep played all the five home Tests in 2025-26, he struggled for rhythm against South Africa, often turning the ball less than the fingerspinners as India lost both the Tests. He came into this series with equal sympathy and scrutiny. In Galle he managed just one wicket in 25 overs, clearly the third choice for Shubman Gill among the three left-arm spin bowlers.
Kuldeep started off well, but then errors crept in and also he didn't draw as much misbehaviour from the pitch as the other spinners. It raises the classic question of whether he is getting to play less cricket because he has lost rhythm or whether he has lost rhythm because he is playing little cricket.
"Look, ultimately we know how good a bowler Kuldeep is," Gambhir said when asked about his being potentially underbowled. "And more importantly, sometimes it's up to the captain as well, where he feels that if his two other spinners can get him wickets looking in those conditions, what pace he wants a certain spinner to bowl.
"It's not about guys underbowling. It's about getting the result. For me, I think that is more important. When you play five proper bowlers, someone will eventually go underbowled. And that is what Test cricket is all about, but it's not about someone not delivering and going underbowled. It's about who the captain feels or the management feels can be most threatening in that particular condition.
"The conversation that I've had with Kuldeep is just try and bowl a good spell rather than looking desperate to take wickets because sometimes as a wristspinner when you're looking and you're desperate to take wickets, I think your control can go away as well. For a very long period of time we rate Kuldeep very highly and we know how successful and how threatening can he be in every condition given to him. But again, we're going to try and pick the best attack of what can deliver in these conditions."
India have one other spin option in their squad in Saransh Jain, but he is more of a batting allrounder. However, there could be temptation to play him as the only time the Sri Lanka batting had the better of India's bowling in Galle was when two left-hand batters were at the wicket. Also Sri Lanka have replaced one of their right-hand openers with a left-hand one. Gambhir, though, said they would pick the best combination to pick 20 wickets.