Image Credit- AFP
In 2023, if you are a mystery spinner, expect to see
innumerable close-ups of your grip, dozens of experts dissecting your release
from slow-motion video, and opposition hitters scrutinising each finger flip.
Do you believe that you are the final product? The
news is here for you, globe. You might not stay here for long, whatever deceit
got you here. In the intense limelight of international cricket, very little
about your game can stay hidden.
So it was on a cloudy afternoon in Birmingham during
the 2019 World Cup for Kuldeep Yadav. During a three-match ODI series in 2018,
Kuldeep, who was teamed with Yuzvendra Chahal at the time, creating the hashtag
#KulCha, magically navigated through the England batting order nine times at a
16.44 average.
However, Kuldeep was still being harassed by the same
opposition a year later. Jason Roy frequently smoked him down the ground, while
Jonny Bairstow either stayed in his crease and reverse-swept him for fours or
danced down the pitch and hammered him for sixes. Kuldeep was bowled out for 72
in his ten overs.
The following year wasn’t any better. Having been
removed from the World Cup playing eleven before its conclusion, Kuldeep played
nine ODIs at a run-a-ball strategy. He was a wristspinner who struggled to get
wickets and could not generate enough pressure in the middle overs, averaging
44.72 during that period. You have to ask yourself if that had been his last
game at the highest level when he was cut from the squad completely.
Surely, this wouldn’t be the first time? Mysterious
spinners: advantageous when unveiled, disadvantageous when dismantled. The type
of cricket players who are most likely to be disposable.
About four years after his game fell apart, Kuldeep
has been an integral component of India’s attack in this World Cup. He has
never gone without a wicket, proven to be hard to dominate, and even mounted a
valiant comeback in the one match where he was destroyed.
All of Kuldeep 2.0 was on display in that New Zealand
match in Dharamsala. In the initial overs, he had bowled more slowly in an
attempt to get a large turn, but Kuldeep would always find a way to respond
when Daryl Mitchell came down the field and repeatedly launched him straight.
When Mitchell shaped to reverse-sweep, Kuldeep would usually slip in the
quicker ball. He would often bowl at over 100 kph, occasionally gaining a
little extra bounce when the ball hit the seam, and occasionally bowl like a cross-seam
delivery, not looking for sideways movement off the surface.
It is ironic that Kuldeep is displaying his improved
skills before his next World Cup matchup with England. The English white-ball
squad has also fully circled in their own way, resurrecting the iconic England
persona of dragging their bodies around the competition.
After their humiliating loss to Sri Lanka on Thursday,
England will have studied footage of Kuldeep 2.0 to the maximum that they could
for India. Maybe they have realised, too, that his strategy is more difficult
to unravel now than it was in Birmingham.