CHENNAI: Imagine being Kuldeep Yadav. It’s February 2021. You have just made a Test comeback after two years. You bowl 12.2 overs in a match dominated by spinners against England and take two wickets. Next match, you miss out as the team management wants to field a spinner who can bat better (Washington Sundar). You sit and watch as he makes a crucial contribution with the bat while bowling just 11.4 overs for one wicket across two matches.
You wait for your chance but injure your knee, missing the IPL and whatever chance you had of making the T20 World Cup. Early 2022, you make an ODI comeback, play one ODI and wait again as another Test series Sri Lanka passes by. Then, another IPL comes along. This time, you are not with the franchise you rose to the top. In a new team, you finish as the fifth-highest wicket-taker of the season. Primed for a comeback, you miss the T20I series due to a hand injury. From thereon, you feature in a second-string Indian team, that was playing ODIs, and India A teams. You miss the T20 World Cup, and don’t get a chance in New Zealand. You wait.
It's not easy being Kuldeep.
Eventually, the call-up for the Test series against Bangladesh comes along. With Ravindra Jadeja ruled out, you get a go in the first Test. You join R Ashwin (50) in the middle when the team is in a tricky position (293/7) on Thursday morning, add a vital 92 runs together 40 to your name to put your team in command (404). Then you wait for 24 overs as the pacers make an impact, reducing the hosts to 74/4. You finally get the ball in your hand. Your first over in Tests in 22 months and you have a chance to make an impact. What would you want to do in your first over?
Here’s what Kuldeep did. First ball, pitched in middle and leg from over the wicket, kicking up some dust off the surface, and flicked for a single by Mushfiqur Rahim. Second ball. Shakib Al Hasan on strike. Shakib jumped out, Kuldeep followed him. The ball dipped in front of Shakib, pitched on leg-stump, turned away, taking the leading edge on its way to Virat Kohli’s hands in first slip. A big wicket, off the very second ball and the celebration was more of a relief than anything else. After all, he was just getting started. The next four balls had a boundary, an appeal for a close catch in first slip, a googly to beat the bat and then a regular leg-spinner which hit the pads given not out and umpire’s call on review.
After struggling with confidence and intermittent injuries for months, he was back where he belonged. Bowling with the red ball in a Test match for India. If there was any need for a morale boost, that first over was it. The nerves had settled down. From thereon, every over of his was an event. There were ‘Ooohs and aahs’ as he beat the bat often with a perfect mix of leg-spinners and googlies. There were the occasional half chances as well. He kept tossing it up, planting doubts on the batters mind. A sharp catch at short-leg from Shubman Gill accounted for Nurul Hasan before Kuldeep trapped Mushfiqur Rahim.
As stumps were drawn, Kuldeep finished with four wickets for 33 runs, helping India reduce the hosts to 133/8. “After a couple of overs I started feeling good, I was mixing my deliveries and was getting good turn as well,” said Kuldeep after the day’s play. “It has been a year now, just trying to be a bit better with my rhythm, which has helped me with my pace and turn. I have been working on both the angles, over and around,” he added.
When the teammates congratulated him while walking off the field, he could not stop smiling. It’s the kind of day he had waited for a long time. It seemed like he wanted to soak it in, and deservedly so. For someone who has played just eight Tests in five years, after taking a four-fer on debut, Kuldeep knows well that days like this are hard to come by.