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Picked again, Kuldeep triggers SL collapse
Replacing an injured Chahal, Yadav proves worth with three key wickets.
This is what Kuldeep Yadav’s career graph has looked like in the last one month for India—eight wickets and a Man of the Match in the Chattogram Test, dropped from Mirpur Test, not picked for the Guwahati ODI before taking 3/51 in Kolkata. Not just three wickets, more like the spine of Sri Lanka’s batting. And Yadav only got in because Yuzvendra Chahal couldn’t recover well enough from the bruise he acquired after putting in a dive he had put in Guwahati.
India have a problem of riches, especially in the slow-bowling category in white-ball cricket, so much so they often get disillusioned about the best line of attack. Few months back they paired Ravichandran Ashwin’s off-spin with Chahal, before that it was Yadav and Chahal while Axar Patel or Ravindra Jadeja are regularly thrown in the mix to keep the run rate down. Wrist spinners are expensive. But they also take wickets.
From that perspective Chahal and Yadav aren’t that different. Yadav’s ODI strike rate of 32.6 is slightly worse than Chahal (31) while the economy (5.20) is almost at par (Chahal returns 5.26). But it’s almost like India have been neglecting Yadav. Had it been in the past, Yadav would have probably come apart. This version of Yadav, however, is thriving in the challenge.
When Rohit Sharma tossed the ball to Yadav after 16 overs, Sri Lanka were cruising at 99/1. On a flat Eden Gardens pitch, pace without swing is like fodder for batters. And it was looking ominous for India with Kusal Mendis clattering Umran Malik over deep backward square-leg for a six. Enter Yadav, and he straightaway gave the ball some air to slow down the proceedings.
A single, followed by another, Yadav was quietly setting the pace interchanging between full and length balls. Last ball of the over, Yadav bowled a delivery that Mendis thought would come into him so he tried to play inside the line. But it didn’t. Not a googly, the ball just held its line and hit him high on the back-leg. Umpire’s call had Mendis despite the referral.
Where Yadav also excelled was in keeping the batter guessing his lines. He had to bowl more middle-stump but some were pitched adjacent as well. And so, when Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka tried to sweep him by moving too far across the line, Yadav didn’t find it difficult to knock back his leg-stump. Charith Asalanka proved to be an easy dismissal. Lining him up with a tossed up ball the previous delivery that Asalanka drove for no run, Yadav then bowled an 87.4 kph wrong’un fuller ball that the batter stayed back and pushed half-heartedly, resulting in an easy caught and bowled.
Had Wanindu Hasaranga not gone on a rampage in the 27th over—he scored 14 runs with two fours and a six over long-off—Yadav could have finished with better match figures but he still ended with a decent and acceptable average for any spinner in ODIs.
More significantly, the collapse—126/6 from 99/1—that Sri Lanka could never recover from was all Yadav’s doing. That says a lot about a man who forever seems to be missing the cut.
