Rahul Dravid All But Confirms One Big Change In India's Playing XI For Afghanistan Clash

Without giving too much away, India head coach Rahul Dravid hinted at the possibility of playing wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the Caribbean leg of the T20 World Cup, starting with the Super 8 opener against Afghanistan. India did not play either Kuldeep or Yuzvendra Chahal in the USA leg of the tournament considering the pace-friendly conditions. However, the conditions are different in the Caribbean where wrist spinners have already made an impact with Adam Zampa being a case in point.

India could drop a pacer and include Kuldeep in the team

How tough was it to leave Kuldeep, who has been India's standout spinner over the past 12 months, out of playing eleven in USA? “It's tough to leave anyone out. I mean all the four guys that we left out in those games, to be honest, are all quality players. It's just that the conditions and what we felt was the requirement in that particular venue made us go with that particular combination where we felt that there wasn't a huge role for spin and it was more of pace more of kind of conditions.

“And we also wanted to ensure that we had the depth on those tricky kind of tickets . So that's what we went there with. You know, it might be different here. Without giving too much away, certainly. You know, it might be slightly different here. That you might need an extra spinner and then someone like Kuldeep or Yuzi can come into play. They become a very good factor for us,” said Dravid ahead of the Afghanistan fixture.

We have definitely pushed the needle in batting

India were guilty of being too conservative in their approach in the previous two editions of T20 World Cup but Dravid feels the team has turned the tide on that front.

“We have actually been to be able to push the