Before the England tour, Kuldeep Yadav had only one wish from his new Test captain, Shubman Gill. “He should include me in the eleven for all matches, what else!” he said, grinning eloquently, in an interview to this newspaper. His wish remained unrequited, as he warmed the benches in all five Tests, the television cameras often capturing him chewing nails on dressing room balconies. It sums up the plight of Kuldeep; he is arguably the finest spinner across formats in his country, yet he finds himself chewing his nails, uncertain he would play in every game, befitting a spinner of his wiles.
He finds himself a casualty of the thriving stock in Indian cricket, the spin-bowling all-rounder. Consequently, he finds himself out-weighed by the utility artistes in Tests abroad. He has not featured in the 19 games India had stacked since lifting the T20 World Cup in Barbados last year, even though an ill-timed injury did little favours. Only in the 50-overs is he a non-negotiable. But with the T20 World Cup defence at home on the horizon, he has soared back into the selectors’ consciousness and could be picked for the Asia Cup. He could feature prominently too in the UAE showdown as India galvanise their spin ammunition before the World Cup.
Post World Cup, under Gautam Gambhir, an admirer of spin-bowling all-rounders, India had embraced a standard approach in most games. Starting with the series against Bangladesh last year, India have employed two specialist spinners (plus one or often two spinning all-rounders) in nine of the eleven games. The trifecta of Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel has been the usual suspects, appearing in seven of the games. There was an instance when India unleashed a four-eyed spin attack against England, the additional component being Washington Sundar. Plus, there had been the part-time support cast of Abhishek Sharma, possessor of a crooked but unrefined under-cutter, and Riyan Parag.
India’s Kuldeep Yadav, front, celebrates with teammate Virat Kohli after the dismissal of New Zealand’s Kane Williamson. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)
Fundamentally, thus, India could afford to keep the spin-pack intact. But Kuldeep is an irresistible temptation. He is a spinner at the peak of his prowess—wise and mature. Tough years in the wilderness have smoothened the rough edges of his bowling. Not just the bowling part, where definitely he has become better at modulating his pace, hitting the right pace on the right pitch for the right variation, subtler in his deception by drift and drip, but also the wisdom and world-view that comes with experience, waiting for a comeback and the sheer will to remain relevant in a cut-throat world.
In his journey of rediscovery, he has shed the fear of failure. “Earlier, I would think that I should not fail. But now, I am not afraid of failing. I tell myself ‘it’s okay, he has played well and so he will score’. But my takeaway would be ‘now I know how this batsman scores, and that will help me the next time’,” he told this paper.
He has shed his fear of getting hit for sixes. “What is important to know is on which delivery you have been hit for sixes. In case you bowl an over-pitched ball or a short ball, you get hit for a six. That, one can’t do much. In case the batsman is stepping out and hitting you, that means he has hit a good ball for a six. You need to think and understand if he is hitting you straight for a six or he is slog-sweeping for a six,” he had said.
Setting up batsmen thrills him, more than the quick-kill he relished at the start of the career. The howitzers, like the little devil that stung Babar Azam in the 2019 World Cup, are priced premium these days. Rather, he derives joy from out-witting batsmen. A classic example is the shortish ball he bowled to eject Mitchell Marsh in the Super Eight game against Australia. Marsh had a predilection to sweep, but he denied him the release-shot with clever modulation of pace and angle. It became a question of ego, as Marsh was hellbent on sweeping him. So when the short ball came, even his trusted pull deceived him, the set up was so skewed against the pull. “The important thing in this format is to read the batsman’s mind. Try to see what he expects you to bowl next and what shot he can try.
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Frictionlessly, he would assimilate into India’s spin gang. Varun, classified a leg-spinner, ensures mystery with sadistic precision; Axar, a left-arm spinner who primarily skids the ball into the right-handed batsman, and Washington who purchases drift and bounce, are thrift merchants who are comfortable with the new ball. Abhishek chimes in with his innocuous left-arm spins (six times in 17 games has he bowled two or more overs). Kuldeep could be the hero that pops up to kill the main villain, with a bass-heavy BGM, in the middle of a fight sequence. The demolition, between and after, he would leave to his sidekicks.
He gives the gang a sense of perfection. He wields as much accuracy as Axar (last IPL, he maintained a better economy rate than Axar, Washington and Varun); brandished as many variations as Varun. He gets more dip and drift than all of them, he has more wicket-taking tools than most bowlers in the world, and is among the finest psychoanalysts of the batsman’s mind. He has everything in him a spinner could dream. Now, all he wants is a clutch of games. He would have only one wish from his T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav: “He should include me in the eleven for all matches, what else!”
Spin tank
Kuldeep Yadav: Among the finest all-format bowlers in the world. He had added deeper layers into his bowling—a better control of everything, from pace to variations, a deeper understanding of the batsman’s mind as well as his own, and a resolve to reinvent and make the best of his remaining years.
Varun Chakaravarthy: Among the most feared T20 bowlers around, he has an assortment of wicket-taking balls. If batsmen had decoded his wrong’un, the carrom ball pounces. If both had been defused, the reverse carrom ball kicks in. Add the seam-up skidder and the straight-ish leg-break, he could pull more tricks off his cap than David Copperfield.
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Axar Patel: In this format, his lusty hitting and electric fielding have taken precedence over his bowling. But he is an immensely crafty bowler who is incredibly difficult to plunder on sluggish wickets. He usually trades in the arm ball, but has an equally deceitful orthodox variant. All of which he mixes up with change of angles, release points and pace.
Washington Sundar: While his nonchalance to bowl in the powerplay overs is often raved about, he could be an equally formidable proposition to hit for boundaries in middle overs too. He is also a more nuanced bowler than the perceptions are about him. He purchases bounce, gets lovely drift into and away from batsmen. Not to mention the clean swipes down the ground.
