Warne’s hand in Yadav’s success

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 25

March 25, 2017 — Kuldeep Yadav would remember this day forever as a day when the stars aligned in perfect harmony for him. With skipper Virat Kohli ruled unfit for the fourth and final Test, India needed an ace up their sleeves to trump the Aussies. The team management took a gamble by going for the kill with a wrist spinner — and not with an extra pacer in seaming conditions.

Yadav, unknown in international cricket till now, was the choice. A wiry spinner who could mystify the Australians with his Chinaman bowling and, perhaps, frustrate them with his dogged batting lower down the order.

So, a 22-year-old rookie from Kanpur, who had been part of the Test team since last month’s Test against Bangladesh, got his Test cap from former leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan before the toss. And the mystery bowler was revealed to the cricketing world.

By the end of the day, the mystery deepened a bit further as the wily bowler stopped the Aussies from running away with the match with figures of 4/68.

Surprise, surprise!

Yadav befuddled David Warner, Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins to leave the Australians reeling at 245/7 in the second session. Warner was done in by a flipper while Cummins was beaten by extra bounce. Handscomb’s wicket, Yadav’s favourite, was set up by foxing the batsman with late drift, the ball sneaking in through bat and pad. His signature wrong’un — or Chinaman googly — left Maxwell in embarrassment as he tried to work the ball, pitched on the middle and leg stump, to the on side, only to see his off stump knocked down.

Yadav’s rare craft of unorthodox left-arm spin — the left-arm version of a right-arm leg-spinner — to turn the ball into the right-hander from outside off is his biggest USP. It’s a rare craft, and Yadav is the first-ever Chinaman bowler to play Test cricket for India. Yadav is still an unknown commodity in international cricket but his performance today has brought the spotlight on him. 

Chinaman, naturally

“Chinaman comes naturally to me. When I started I did not even know it. I back my skills and variations even if I am being hit for runs. While bowling, I only see that whether I am executing my plan well or not. Runs or wickets, it does not matter. A good spinner is one who gets hit and takes wickets in turn,” he later summarised his career.

Yadav has been doing consistently well on the domestic circuit for some time now but has been waiting in the wings. With 35 wickets in the Ranji Trophy, he is the fourth-highest wicket-taker among the spinners this season. He is an aggressive spinner with 81 wickets from 22 first class matches in all. He’s a decent batsman too, making 466 runs from 13 innings in the Ranji Trophy season, including a century against Baroda.

Yadav’s wrong’uns, flippers and variations are his stealth weapon, his control over line and length is his biggest asset. The Uttar Pradesh spinner counts Sachin Tendulkar’s scalps in the Mumbai Indians nets as the high point of life, along with his interactions with Shane Warne at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. “He (Warne) had worked on my flipper and asked me to improve my variations,” Yadav said. 

“I have been doing that. Today you saw my first wicket was (taken with) a flipper. Unhi se seekh ke unhi ki wickets lena acha laga... (Learning from the Australians and applying it on them felt nice),” he said with a wink and a sly smile. 

Yadav would feel on the top of the world after he reads Tendulkar’s tweet: “I am impressed with @imkuldeep18’s variations and the way he has started. Keep going strong, this can be your match to shine.” This would be the icing on the cake for him.

Emotions overwhelmed Yadav as he got his Test cap and then his first wicket, but at the end of the innings, as he led the team to the dressing room, he could not describe it as anything but spectacular.