India defeated Sri Lanka in the first Test of the two-match series to bounce back into the World Test Championship 2025-27 campaign. They would look to win the final Test of the series in Colombo in order to clean sweep the series. In the first match of the series, Manav Suthar shined with a 10-wicket haul, while Ravindra Jadeja also supported well. The only spinner who could not perform well was Kuldeep Yadav, who bowled just 24 overs and picked one wicket across the two innings. There have been calls to include Saransh Jain in place of Kuldeep in the second game. Now India’s bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule has responded to this.

In a video shared by BCCI, Sairaj Bahutule praised Kuldeep Yadav saying that he has bowled extremely well but had a different role im Galle.

“He’s been bowling extremely well. It’s just the situation which arose in Galle, he had to play a different role. For me, he has always been a match-winner and he definitely is in the scheme of things,” he said.

Sairaj Bahutule added that all the spinners are struggling because of the soft ball, but for leg spinners it is more difficult because the seam goes down with the softness of the ball.

“All the spinners are struggling with the soft ball. But for finger spinners (left-arm or off-spinners), it becomes easier. For a leg-spinner, it is that much harder because of the softness of the ball, the seam just goes down Finger spinners, you can manipulate the fingers and bowl with the speeds you want to bowl. It is a tough proposition for a (wrist) spinner,” Bahutule said.

“So, I don’t think one game decides on the way he is performing and the way he is approaching. So, that’s all he had to adapt to and he tried his best to adapt to that role,” the Indian bowling coach added.