Percentage of Tests missed by leading Indian spinner wicket-takers from debut to last match:
Bedi 11, Mankad 12, Shastri 12, Kumble 17, Ashwin 18, Chandra 31, Gupte 32, Jadeja 37, Harbhajan 40, Prasanna 41, Venkat 53.
Apart from the very beginning and end of his career, Bedi was only dropped once - for giving an unauthorised TV interview. Mankad was also deemed undroppable, helped by his batting like Shastri. Chandra, Prasanna and Venkat were in competition with each other. Prasanna missed a dozen Tests while away studying. Gupte was sometimes overlooked in favour of Ghulam Ahmed.
Bedi, Prasanna, Shastri and Kumble played most of their Tests away from home.
Jadeja seems to have suffered more than Ashwin from the improvement in India's pace bowling, and the same might be said of Harbhajan.