Kuldeep Yadav Finds His Form Again, Delivers Match-Winning Spell to Reaffirm His Value to Team India

During the 1st ODI between India and West India in the on-going three-match series, put into bat first, the visitors made a promising start to their innings. On a batting-friendly wicket, the Windies openers negated the Indian pace attack with ease and score runs quite freely and finding the fence every now and again.

The WI opening duo of John Campbell and Justin Greaves mixed aggression and caution with great aplomb and put in a delightful 100+ runs opening partnership and they looked well on course to put a mammoth target on board. But then Indian skipper Shubman Gill unleashed one of the trump cards up his sleeve, the chinman Kuldeep Yadav.

He took only fourteen balls to strike; inducing a false stroke from John Campbell. He was caught by Prasidh Krishna at short fine while trying to take Yadav on; giving India the much-needed breakthrough. Even though King Kohli and Captain Gill later stole the show from Yadav with some brilliant display of batting and making the chase a walk in the park, it was Kuldeep who turned the game in India’s favour with his guile, dip, flight and all the variations.

In a nine-year international cricketing career so far, Kuldeep has established himself as the rhythm bowler who likes to be in the thick of things. Every time he hits his stride early, he reaps rich dividends and Sunday was one such case. Kuldeep showcased his class and full range of deliveries in his arsenal, from the tossed-up deliveries to the wrong one and the quickish fuller delivery, everything landed perfectly and for all his variations, he walked away with a figure of 4 four 40 and fittingly winning the player of the match award.

After the win, Kuldeep said, “Personally, I liked my rhythm. Just varying the pace and trying to read the batters, where they are going to hit me. Sometimes to get that confidence back you need a spell like this. Since his debut in 2017, Kuldeep has picked 198 wickets in the 50-over format at an average of about 27. Of the 10 ODIs and 28 T20Is India have played in 2026 so far, he has featured only in five and four games respectively, which is quite baffling considering his skills as a match-winner.

His career in red ball cricket has been a stop-start affair so far. He has only sporadically featured in 19 test matches since making his debut against Australian in Dharamshala in 2017. Speaking about his career to TOI, former India spinner Venkatpathy Raju said, “Kuldeep needs to be handled with care and used as a wicket-taker bowler. The more he bowls, the better he gets because it will help him into rhythm. We were surprised that Kuldeep has been benched for so many games. Kuldeep is a match-winner and is one of the few mystery bowlers in the world.”