IPL 2021: “He should be given an opportunity to play elsewhere” – Gautam Gambhir criticizes KKR for retaining Kuldeep Yadav
All Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises announced their full list of retained players on Wednesday with most of them tending to retain a majority of their squad. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) was one such franchise who retained a huge part of their squad. The retention of out-of-favor yet talented spinner Kuldeep Yadav has however, not gone down well with a few fans and former cricketers.
Kuldeep wasn’t used much in the 2020 edition of the IPL as KKR went for Varun Chakravarthy to complement Sunil Narine as their frontline spinners. Therefore, there were calls for KKR to release Kuldeep as his services could be extremely useful for other franchises. The same hasn’t transpired now and criticism for the move has started coming in, with former KKR captain Gautam Gambhir, chief among them.
‘It is harmful to your career’ – Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir spoke on the Star Sports show, Cricket Connected about Kuldeep Yadav’s retention and said, “I am a little surprised about Kuldeep Yadav being retained because he did not get the opportunities. I would have wanted to see Kuldeep Yadav go to a franchise where he gets an opportunity to play. Because if you are playing for India and not part of your franchise’s playing XI, it is somewhere or the other be harmful to your career.”
He further said, “Now that you have retained him, they should play him. Otherwise, I feel Kuldeep Yadav should have himself said that if he is not in their scheme of things, he should be given an opportunity to go and play somewhere else. If Kuldeep Yadav had come into the auction, a lot of franchises would have gone for him.”
The auction for the 2021 edition of the IPL is set to take place on February 18 or 19 in Chennai.
Nevin Clinton
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