The second Test in Chennai will be remembered for Rohit Sharma’s masterly 161, Ravichandran Ashwin’s all-round heroics, Virat Kohli’s high-quality 62, Axar Patel’s debut; least of all for Kuldeep Yadav’s 6.1-25-2 in the England second innings. Yadav’s late wickets meant little to the outcome of the match on a MA Chidambaram Stadium pitch where even Dan Lawrence with his wacky action got some turn.
For Yadav though, those wickets mattered. “It felt like a debut for me because I’ve not played for so long. I was a bit nervous,” he told the official broadcasters. He had last featured in a Test in January, 2019. “Bowling in a match is very different no matter how much you bowl in the nets.”
Yadav is a left-arm-wrist spinner, uncommon in cricket as a chilly Mumbai morning. Rare as his kind are, thanks to analytics he found himself being read better by batsmen. He was being seen as too slow in Test cricket, and too expensive with the white ball. Twenty-two months back in IPL 2019 at a Kolkata Knight Riders home match, he ran into RCB’s Moeen Ali on the rampage.
The 16th over bowled by Yadav went for 26 runs—4-6-4-6-6-W. The more he flighted, farther it went. The faster and fuller he bowled, the flatter it went. By the time Yadav dismissed Ali off the last ball with a change in angle, his confidence was shattered. The camera caught him reduced to tears. Many bowlers would have bawled in private after a bad day; here, millions saw Yadav’s disappointment through his moist eyes.
{{/usCountry}}The 16th over bowled by Yadav went for 26 runs—4-6-4-6-6-W. The more he flighted, farther it went. The faster and fuller he bowled, the flatter it went. By the time Yadav dismissed Ali off the last ball with a change in angle, his confidence was shattered. The camera caught him reduced to tears. Many bowlers would have bawled in private after a bad day; here, millions saw Yadav’s disappointment through his moist eyes.
{{/usCountry}}Back to the Chennai Test, and Ali has decided to go into T20 mode. He can’t hurt India with England still 356 runs away from victory and one wicket away from defeat. Ali decides to use his feet to dispatch Axar Patel, who has taken seven wickets on debut, out of the attack with three clean sixes. Ashwin replaces Patel, and Ali finds a way to deliver the ace spinner twice to the ropes—a four and a six.
Kohli keeps Yadav on at the other end. Ali hits him first ball, an extra-cover drive. But the odds are stacked against Ali here. The pitch is a fourth-day turner and India smell victory. Ali advances, and Yadav has flighted the ball at 83.3 kph, but wider this time. The batsman is beaten in the air, and Rishab Pant completes an acrobatic stumping. India has won, Kuldeep is smiling. When the players are shaking hands, Ali has a word with Yadav. Was it congratulatory? Only the two would know. But Yadav would sleep better on Tuesday night.
ALSO READ | 'You can see the difference in his reflexes': Virat Kohli 'credits' Rishabh Pant for 'improving as a keeper'
In Chennai, he was playing as the third spinner. He was under-bowled, which often happens when the primary spinners find their range on a helpful surface. He is likely to miss the next Test, the pink-ball game in Ahmedabad starting on February 24. But after going wicketless in the first innings, and having had Joe Root’s catch dropped in the second innings, just when it was looking all bleak for him, everything aligned to help settle scores with Ali.