INDIAN SUMMER
England must unravel mystery spinner Kuldeep or it will be an…
England need to quickly solve the age- old problem of conquering a mystery spinner if they are to stop their summer and 2019 World Cup hopes being derailed.
Unless they can come up with a way to combat the left-arm wrist- spin of Kuldeep Yadav, starting in today’s second one- day international, England look to be heading for a miserable Indian summer — and perhaps worse next year.
Kuldeep’s angle of attack is unique in world cricket and that makes him a huge threat to England in this series, the five Tests that follow and a home World Cup in 2019 that they are favourites to win.
The crackdown on mystery spin by the International Cricket Council because of concerns over the legality of ‘doosras’ has made life much easier for an England side once tormented by Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri lanka.
There are no worries over Kuldeep’s action, just a shuddering sense of deja vu when England’s batsmen seemed to have no clue how to play his leg spinners and googlies in Thursday’s crushing defeat at Trent Bridge. Figures of six for 25 said it all.
England turned to a faithful old friend in the Merlyn bowling machine after the 23-year- old took five wickets against them in the first Twenty20 international and played him a little better in the second game at Cardiff.
Kuldeep, though, suggests that England turning to tehcnology in order to combat his style will all be in vain. ‘I don’t believe in bowling machines,’ he said. ‘If the ball is turning, especially here in England, the batsmen are not able to comprehend me.
‘With a bowling machine, you cannot see the hand, wrist or arm during the delivery and the ball only turns. If they are not picking the ball from the hand, they have a huge problem against me.’
It will be a particular concern to England that their two best batsmen — Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow — have had the most trouble picking Kuldeep. England batting coach graham Thorpe, a good player of spin himself, wants his charges to go on the front foot and look to attack Kuldeep, starting with today’s match at lord’s and the third OdI at Headingley on Tuesday.
‘You want to see a response from our batsmen going into the next game,’ said Thorpe.
‘From what I’m hearing in my chats with them, it’s not as if they can’t pick him. It’s about being proactive with our movements at the crease and there has been talk in our dressing room about whether you can move down the pitch to him.
‘Then even if you don’t pick him you’re still in a position to play it. It’s as much a mental thing as anything but we musn’t panic or over-focus on him.’
India now look certain to pick Kuldeep next week in their Test squad for a series that begins on august 1, even though they have the considerable and established spin threat of Ravichandran ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja up their sleeves.
Unless, that is, they want to protect the left-armer from overfamiliarity in England with the World Cup in mind. There have been instances in the past of mystery bowlers being ‘found out’, as was the case with Sri lanka’s ajantha Mendis, who went from unplayable to barely a threat with practice.
‘I remember facing an unusual bowler in Paul adams,’ said Thorpe. ‘and after a while, the more you face someone the better it gets. It’s keeping our players on their toes, which is no bad thing.’
The one England player who has looked good against Kuldeep is alex Hales in the second T20 international, but he has been ruled out for four weeks with a side injury so cannot come to the rescue today.
Instead it will be up to England’s big guns to find an answer to this unusual challenge. JaMES TaYlOR, who was forced to retire two years ago with a serious heart condition, was yesterday named as England’s new full-time selector to work with Ed Smith.