Tuesday at the R Premadasa in Colombo, Kuldeep Yadav took his 150th ODI wicket by dismissing Matheesha Pathirana of Sri Lanka with a bowled between the legs delivery.
Pathirana simply didn’t know how to play that muddled delivery, and that’s what Kuldeep Yadav aims to do: make the ordinary extraordinary.
After making mechanical improvements, Kuldeep Yadav is a magician who weaves magic with his wrist-spin. These days, every time he floats one a little bit quicker, the batters just appear to have no idea how to play it.
The 28-year-old’s mastery of the white ball has always been impressive, but what is most amazing about his bowling is his fearless approach, mental toughness to persevere after getting blasted all over the park, and willingness to keep improving over time.
Kuldeep makes heavy use of variations in his arsenal. They have been on full display for years, and the Asia Cup 2023 was no exception. The hero from Kanpur had a sluggish start against Nepal but was incredibly unlucky. Although he bowled with great venom, his ten-over performance resulted in no wickets.
In the Pakistan encounter, Kuldeep Yadav stole the show after Virat Kohli and KL Rahul both scored outstanding hundreds. Kuldeep Yadav began to weave a web around Pakistan after picking up Fakhar Zaman. For his second ODI lineup, he chose Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, and Faheem Ashraf.
After the Pakistan game entered the reserve day, India had already played two days in a row. This served as a true test of resilience, physical fitness, and match readiness. At the toss, Rohit Sharma made the decision to bat first. The captain broke the 10,000-run barrier in ODIs the second fastest after Virat Kohli.
Once the ball became stale, the surface began to act up, and Dunith Wellalage and Charith Asalanka combined for nine wickets to restrict India to just 213. Prior to the introduction of spin, Sri Lanka were having problems chasing a respectable score in difficult circumstances. Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah started the new ball talk and pushed Sri Lanka back.
Once Kuldeep Yadav was introduced by Rohit Sharma, there was no turning back as the spinner took out the first-innings hero Charith Asalanka and the in-form Sadeera Samarawickrama. Then, to assist India go to the 2023 Asia Cup finals, he cleaned up the Lankan tail.
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