NEW DELHI: When Kuldeep Yadav represented his state team, Uttar Pradesh, for the Ranji Trophy match against Kerala in the first week of January, it was his first long-format match of any kind since the end of 2022 (a Test in Bangladesh). However, considering the England-shaped challenge, he knew he couldn't go unprepared.
In the Group B match at Alappuzha, the left-arm wrist spinner bowled 26 overs and returned with four wickets. His victims — Rohan Kunnumal, Sachin Baby, P Rohan Prem and Vishnu Vinod — all were top-order batters. With confidence and some competitive red-ball practice behind him, he linked up with the Indian squad ahead of the first Test in Hyderabad. But Kuldeep had to wait for his chance.
With Ravindra Jadeja out of the second Test at Visakhapatnam, the 29-year-came into focus. While Jasprit Bumrah played Batman in the first innings, Kuldeep was his Robin picking up three crucial wickets to accompany the pacer’s six. In the second, he gave India the big breakthrough by trapping Zak Crawley — who was threatening to take the game away from India — to open the floodgates.
Ahead of the Rajkot Test, he had spoken about how much he was enjoying the contest against the tourists. Jadeja dominated the proceedings in his hometown. In Ranchi, captain Rohit Sharma understandably trusted the senior spinner, along with R Ashwin to do the heavy lifting on Day One. In fact, Kuldeep was brought on only in the 42nd over.
It is a tricky situation where you have three world class spinners, one of them will have to wait to get the ball hand. Kuldeep bowled only 12 overs with no wickets, but was the most economical among the bowlers.
Come Day Three, Rohit did not take long to turn to Kuldeep. Now, having batted long enough on the surface — he stitched a crucial partnership with Dhruv Jurel to help India reduce the deficit — Kuldeep knew how the surface was playing. With little bounce and pace on offer, the wrist spinner realised the need to bowl quicker through the air. He even changed his run up a little to extract assistance from the surface. And the result was there to see — the wickets of Crawley, Ben Stokes, Tom Hartley and Ollie Robinson. The pace of those wicket-taking deliveries read 85.9 KPH, 81.3, 83.3 and 80.7, respectively.
“Outstanding” is what UP head coach and former India left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi described Kuldeep’s performance. “It is important that you understand the nature of the surface and based on that, you have to prepare. Kuldeep is very smart. I mean not only in this series, if you look at what Kuldeep 2.0, (what he) has done overall since his comeback, I think he has varied the pace whenever needed, bowled slow or quicker through the air, put revs on the ball as per the situation. That is why he is so effective,” the former national selector told this daily.
Joshi is not one bit surprised about Kuldeep’s stellar show. In fact, over a month ago, during the Ranji match, Kuldeep picked the brains of Joshi on how to bowl to English batters, most of whom take out the broom to counter spin. “When they start reverse sweeping automatically, they want the bowler to change the line and length to the reverse sweep or genuine sweep. Those discussions, come what may, whatever the batter tries (he is doing so) because he is not comfortable to play you consistently. You have to be prepared and stick to your plans and strengths. And that is what he is doing and he is consistently picking up wickets. And he is getting top-order wickets, it shows why he is so effective and consistent in lengths,” Joshi explained.
While it might seem like Kuldeep has stepped up big time only in Ranchi from the scoreboards, he has taken 12 wickets in three games as the third spinner. Among the 12, eight feature in the top seven. That in itself sumps up the impact he has had with the ball. On various occasions he has made Jonny Bairstow, Stokes, Crawley and Ben Foakes look like they had no clue what happened on the deliveries they got out to. Whether it was the Bairstow dismissal in Rajkot or Stokes in the second innings in Ranchi, Kuldeep was all over the England batters, taking them by surprise.
At this point, it is important to understand what has changed apart from the upskilling and adapting since his comeback. When Rohit became captain, one of the first things he did was to throw his weight behind Kuldeep and back him publicly to make a comeback. Since then, he has been a regular in the white-ball sides, at least in ODIs. In Tests, he has been the fourth spinner in the pecking order behind Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel (you might argue he's now the third choice after displacing Axar in the third Test at Rajkot).
Having the backing of the captain has made a huge difference to Kuldeep’s confidence in this latest version and it shows on the field. How long before Kuldeep becomes a regular feature in the first XI? Joshi says it will depend on the gameplan of captain and coach. “Every captain and coach has a different gameplan. According to me, Kuldeep should be your preferred choice in Tests. He brings a different variety, expertise and dimension to the bowling attack. He should be an integral part of the bowling unit,” Joshi said.
While India’s next Test series is months away, there is still one match left in the series. With the weather tilting towards the colder side, it will be interesting to see what kind of combination the home side fields, especially now that Bumrah has returned to the squad. Irrespective of the decision they make, Kuldeep will know he played an important role in helping the hosts preserve their long unbeaten record.
