The young Indian chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav is one of the two Indian bowlers who have five-wicket hauls in all three formats of the game and in Australia, he impressed one and all by picking a five-wicket haul in his maiden Test. The 24-year-old bowler now has 24 wickets from just six Tests and is a talent to look for after Jasprit Bumrah in the longer format of the game. Kuldeep has already made a place for himself in the limited-overs squad and his performance in Sydney could see him sail smoothly in the run-up to the World Cup in England.
Kuldeep’s performances have been quite consistent over the past few months and his latest performance in Sydney has made head coach Ravi Shastri feel that he is the team’s first-choice spinner when it comes to picking the playing XI for the mega tournament. Though the chinaman was the third-preferred spinner in Australia after Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, the absence of the latter two spinners makes him along with Yuzvendra Chahal Team India’s main spin weapons in the limited-overs and a five-for in Tests makes Kuldeep’s claim for a spot in the WC even stronger.
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As per the quotes in India Today, Shastri said, “Kuldeep comes into the mix big time now (in the World Cup). He might be in every Indian XI that plays (in the World Cup) because he has the advantage of a wrist spinner. We might need to choose between the other two finger spinners because wrist spinner now is the priority.”
Kuldeep’s five for 99 at the Sydney Cricket Ground helped India make Australia follow-on at home after a gap of over 30 years but the visitors could not go on and force a win because of rain gods barred any play on Day 5. The drawn game though did not hurt India as they ended up winning the four-match series 2-1 – first time ever on Australia soil.
Cheteshwar Pujara played a crucial role in India’s series win as he amassed 521 runs in seven innings with the help of three centuries with the highest of 193 scored in Sydney. India’s bowlers also excelled by bowling out the hosts in all seven innings they played with Jasprit Bumrah finishing as the joint top wicket-taker with Australia’s Nathan Lyon as they had 21 scalps.
