MATCH STORIES
Follow UsLet’s start with a bit of trivia, shall we?
Can you name all the wrist spinners who have played T20s for India? Come on, there are only five of them.
Piyush Chawla, Amit Mishra, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy, and now Kuldeep Yadav.
His introduction in this year’s T20 World Cup was certainly delayed. In the entirety of the New York leg, India certainly didn’t need a wrist spinner. But when they moved the base from the United States of America to the West Indies, they quickly realised that their plans needed a rejig.
"New York had pace bowlers' conditions … we might need something different here in Barbados,” Dravid said as India’s wagon shifted to the West Indies.
Kuldeep was that something different; he was the point of difference. He was the magic that India needed as they embarked on their Caribbean journey. In India’s first clash against Afghanistan in the Super 8s on June 20 (Thursday), the left-arm unorthodox spinner spun a web, removing both Gulbadin Naib and Mohammad Nabi.
But it was here in Antigua when he really put on an inspired performance. Bangladesh were well-placed at 64/1 after the ninth over. That’s when the left-arm spinner brewed something special with his bag of tricks.
Kuldeep was like David Berglas, the well-renowned British card magician, and his googly was like Berglas’ card trick that was known as “the holy grail of card magic”. Tanzid pushed back, but little did he realise that a googly was coming his way.
By the time he realised, it was too late, and Kuldeep’s hands were aloft. Two overs of wizardry.
In front of Kuldeep was one of the best spin hitters in the tournament and one of Bangladesh’s batting mainstays, Towhid Hridoy. Across four games, Hridoy had smashed 70 off 46 deliveries, with the third-best strike rate against the tweakers in the competition, only behind Brandon McMullen and Marcus Stoinis. Kuldeep threw the ball up in a way that beat the right-hander’s attempted sweep, with the simplest of decisions for the umpire.
Kuldeep’s magic was too surreal.
A few minutes later, Shakib Al Hasan took him head-on. But just one delivery later, Kuldeep showed his street smartness, forcing the veteran to mistime it and slice it straight into the hands of Rohit Sharma. It is these small things.
With small adjustments, be it varying his line, length or pace, Kuldeep found ways to pick up the big wickets. It wasn’t about the three wickets that he took; it was about how he always found a way to outfox the batters.
If it had been Kuldeep of yesteryear, he would have succumbed under the pressure after one six. But this version of Kuldeep continually has shown that speed combined with smarts is the perfect combination for white-ball success.
While Kuldeep’s contribution might be a footnote in India’s 50-run win over Bangladesh, his performance certainly ticks one of the biggest boxes in their T20 World Cup checklist.
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