Unlike in the past, India's Kuldeep Yadav has found himself on the erroneous side of everybody’s list, having failed to assert any kind of authority in the ongoing Indian T20 League. Nine games into the season, the wrist-spinner has leaked 286 runs, and his unfortunate fate hasn’t assisted him in terms of wickets as well. With just four wickets thus far, Yadav carries an average of 71.50 coupled with strike rate and economy of 49.50 and 8.66 respectively.
These are the figures no bowler in the world would like to be associated with. This loss in form has not only troubled his franchise – who now sit sixth in the league — but has also raised a notion of uneasiness amongst the Indian cricket team faithful given that the 2019 ICC World Cup is soon approaching.
Speaking of Yadav’s Indian T20 League form, the marauding of Bengaluru’s Moeen Ali is set to stay the 24-year-old’s highlight of the 2019 edition. The English all-rounder went all guns blazing and smashed 27 runs off his over before falling down in the last delivery.
The Englishman was gone, but the harm was already done. The tormenting, on a personal tone, was so dreary that the spinner broke into tears. Yadav’s vigour had taken a massive hit.
When you see an athlete going down in tears, you know he has exhausted the confidence he was carrying. The strength he has had before the game has dispersed in thin air.
And when you think about it, this is when the resilience is shattered into pieces and wounds go deeper than skin. What lies within is an absolute feeling of tribulation. And getting over it isn’t a walk in the park. It has never been. But those who rise from the ashes soar like a Phoenix and go on to become an ideal specimen.
However, while the spinner has been a stand out performer for India in the ODI format since his debut in 2017, we as layman have come to a conclusion based on the shortest format of the game; a format best known for batting brilliance.
Kuldeep, regardless of his franchise form, has been one of the finest spinners on the international stage and looks high on confidence every time he takes on his opponent. Despite being a wrist-spinner, he has maintained a respectable economy (4.93) in the ODIs, canceling out the talk that players of his ilk (wrist-spinners) concede more runs than other bowlers.
At the World Cup, it will be a different stage altogether and the last thing the Indian team would want would be to see their star chinaman going low on confidence. The Nagpur-born is censured to struggle once the batsmen at the other end start understanding his line. But that has been the case with most of the spinners of late.
What lies ahead of Kuldeep is a test of composure, a test of collective resilience given that most of the foreign players playing in the Indian T20 League – including Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and David Warner to name a few – know what kind of trickery the 24-year-old carries in his sleeves. So that well and truly raises the question whether India would still line their KulCha spinning combination at the World Cup?
There are plenty of arguments over the same and what doesn’t work in Kuldeep’s favour is Yuzvendra Chahal’s form in the Indian T20 League. Being in a similar vintage, Chahal has garnered more wickets (14) and has a better economy (7.53) than Kuldeep. Above all, Ravindra Jadeja’s capability of providing added depth in batting can be a danger if Kuldeep sees even a slight dip in form in England.
But then again, the last time Kuldeep played on English conditions, he picked nine wickets in three games. You see there’s no dearth in quality, all Kuldeep needs – as his Kolkata captain Dinesh Karthik said – is a break and come back fresh.
