India, Sept. 29 -- Amidst the joy of India's ninth title win in the Asia Cup and the exhilaration of watching young Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Verma's fearless batting, a glaring contradiction seems to have escaped notice. The highest wicket-taker of the tournament was a man who, just a month ago, was left warming the bench through the five-Test series against England.

In the UAE, Kuldeep Yadav took 17 wickets at an average of 9.29 in a format where batsmen are incentivised to throw their bat at everything. To put this in perspective, the next best was Shaheen Shah Afridi with 10 victims at an average of 16.40.

Despite such a performance, Kuldeep isn't a certainty for the Indian Test team when the next series comes up. This confirms the ...