What has gone wrong with Kuldeep Yadav?
NEW DELHI: After the ICC Champions Trophy final loss to Pakistan in 2017, the Indian team management decided to make a big change to their strategy in limited overs cricket. Out went the finger spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and in came the young spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. What followed was an exceptional spell of success in both T20 and oneday internationals.
The left arm wrist spinner Yadav struck the form of his life as he finished 2018 as the second most successful spinner in ODIS behind Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan.
With 45 wickets from 20 matches at an average of 17.77 and economy of 4.64, Yadav was being looked at as India’s biggest trump card going into the 2019 ICC World Cup in England.
Something changed in the months preceding the big event in June-july. First, Yadav— who had made his name first in the Ipl—suffered a terrible 2019 season in the league, picking up only 4 wickets in 9 outings for Kolkata Knight Riders.
The poor form carried over to the World Cup as well.
In an interview to Hindustan Times during the IPL season Yadav had said, “I really want to learn the skill so that I could avoid getting hit. Sometimes the batsman is able to hit you but my strength lies in giving air to the ball, in being able to spin the ball, and I back myself. But this is an aspect where I want to improve because it’s good to be attacking but you have to think of the team as well and be able to save runs too.”
An out-and-out wicket taker trying to learn how to contain runs—it did not work out well. Yadav finished 2019 with 35 wickets from 23 matches. The average had gone up to 34.68 and that was primarily because of a steep hike in his economy rate, which stood at 5.33. His recent outing against New Zealand in Hamilton, where he was taken for 84 runs has once again brought into light his misery.
Former India left arm spinner Maninder Singh has a theory. He pointed out what he deems is a technical flaw in Yadav’s bowling.
“I have been saying this from the day when he became successful that Kuldeep has a technical flaw in his action and if that is not looked into he will get caught out soon,” Singh said. “His front arm drops very quickly, because of which the life in the ball (the revolutions and pace on the ball) is not as much as it should be to sustain success.
“He has got caught out now. He has played a lot of international cricket and people have seen his videos and they know what is his ball speed and with what speed it comes from the pitch.”
A veteran of 35 Tests and 59 ODIS himself, Singh knows all about fading out after a bright start in international cricket and he doesn’t want the same to happen to Yadav.
“I am speaking out of personal experience. I too lost my way in the middle of a great career. I think his confidence has gone down after last year’s IPL,” Singh said. “Once this (the technical flaw) is sorted he will get his confidence back. He is a real talent for Indian cricket and we need to preserve him.”