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Cricket PlayersICC World Cup 2019: Kuldeep Yadav and the one ball that turned the game
Kuldeep Yadav had already shaken Australia with a four-wicket haul in the deciding final Test in Dharamsala in March 2017, and the excitement over his value in limited-overs cricket began to build.
For all the disparity in standard between the India and Pakistan teams—was laid bare at Old Trafford on Sunday under grey skies—it was Kuldeep Yadav’s ball of the World Cup to bowl Babar Azam that turned the game well and truly one way.
It was fitting that Yadav’s deceptive spin exploded against Pakistan, as it was the fruition of a wrist-spin project that was born out of the soul searching that followed India’s 2017 ICC Champions Trophy defeat against their traditional rivals at the Oval.
At the Oval, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, India’s two finger-spinners where dispatched by Pakistani batsmen with ease. Virat Kohli, smarting from that loss, decided to turn to wrist spin. In came Yadav, making a quiet debut in an obligatory limited-overs series in the West Indies following the Champions Trophy.
Since then, the 24-year-old chinaman bowler has grown in leaps and bounds, emboldened by his captain’s policy of staying on the offensive.
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“I will continue to attack even if I go for runs” is his mantra, and it reflects also on his own confidence and skills as a bowler.
“It becomes difficult when he (Yadav) bowls cross-seam deliveries turning both ways. Usually, spinners bowl seam-up deliveries turning in and the googly cross-seam, but he can do both with cross-seam and that becomes more difficult to pick from the wrist. And when batsmen try to attack, he can slow his pace down, and beat the batsman halfway into the pitch,” was Kohli’s assessment during that short Caribbean series.
Yadav had already shaken Australia with a four-wicket haul in the deciding final Test in Dharamsala in March 2017, and the excitement over his value in limited-overs cricket began to build. The absence of a quality wrist-spinner, and the novelty of a chinaman bowler in world cricket, meant batsmen needed time to read his bouquet of variations.
The novelty is now worn, and plenty of batsmen have had a chance to study him, but it has not stopped Yadav, nor did it help Azam, one of Pakistan’s most technically sound batsmen.He had looked to play out Yadav after he came on to bowl in the 13th over—the first four against him was hit off his 22nd delivery. Pakistan were trying to turn India’s shock bowler into a stock spinner. But it was Yadav, chipping away at the patience of the two batsmen, who would soon remove both in the space of three deliveries.
But first, Azam’s back story. In the Asia Cup in Dubai last September, he had been batting on 47 when his eyes lit up at a Yadav delivery—he came down the track to flick one tossed up on the leg stump line.
Azam played for the orthodox delivery that turns into the right-hander. But it was a wrong ‘un, and the batsman, in keeping with Kohli’s assessment in the West Indies, was unable to pick from the wrist. The drift did Azam in even before it beat the outside of the bat and hit off-stump.
Perhaps the Dubai dismissal was playing somewhere in his mind. Having pushed Azam into a defensive shell against him, Yadav tossed it up on a leg- and middle-stump line, and the ball drifted outside off-stump. Done in by the wrong ‘un in September, the drift lured Azam into playing away from the body while the dip meant he didn’t reach the pitch of the delivery. As it spun back and crashed through bat and pad, England seemed to get a Shane Warne ‘ball of the century’ moment all over.
“I watched it when we came back for the break,” Yadav said after the match. “The delivery had drift and turn and any spinner would have loved to bowl that delivery. It was a dream delivery. You can call it a proper Test match delivery. Deceiving the batsman in the air and forcing him to make mistake.
Asia Cup dismissal
But first, Azam’s back story. In the Asia Cup in Dubai last September, he had been batting on 47 when his eyes lit up at a Yadav delivery—he came down the track to flick one tossed up on the leg stump line.
Azam played for the orthodox delivery that turns into the right-hander. But it was a wrong ‘un, and the batsman, in keeping with Kohli’s assessment in West Indies, was unable to pick from the wrist. The drift did Azam in even before it beat the outside of the bat and hit off-stump.
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“Rotation of the ball and deceiving the batsmen in the air are the two most important things for any spinner. That’s my strength and I really loved it,” he added.
Yadav has all the chinaman bowler’s variations, his deliveries gathering potency due to flight, dip and drift. Then there are the variations—the one that comes into the right-hander after pitching; honed to perfection, it usually beats the tentative defensive prod and hits off-stump, or the edge can carry to the cordon.
Then the one, like the leg-spinner’s drifting delivery, which pitches and holds the line. Miss it and the batsman runs the risk of being trapped leg before.
Then come the back-of-the-hand deliveries. The one flicked with the thumb on its way is a threat due to its flight, the bounce it generates, and the drift, before it spins away from the right-hander. The second variation pitches and holds the line, perfect for leg before.
“He’s probably, what, 48 games and almost 90 wickets. That is almost two wickets per game. That’s a hell of a record for a spinner and most wickets have come outside the sub-continent,” said Rohit Sharma.
Add to those wickets the fact that Yadav has maintained an economy rate of less than five per over at the World Cup, and you have a match-winner.
Last year, in the ODI series, it took England’s seasoned batsmen the third game in a week—led by Joe Root—to counter Yadav with defence and calculated attack. Against Pakistan, a team he had faced only twice, both in the Asia Cup last year, Yadav was simply unplayable.
