In the middle of the IPL, as Kuldeep Yadav went wicketless for three successive matches, the wrist-spinner did something he hadn’t done before: Take a break mid-way through the campaign and head to Kanpur to work with his personal coach Kapil Pandey. The reasons why he couldn’t wait till the IPL was over were evident to Pandey even before Kuldeep landed at his doorstep.
“Before the IPL, in the T20 World Cup, he played just one game. When you spend so much time on the bench, you tend to lose your rhythm. That’s what was happening with Kuldeep,” Pandey tells The Indian Express. The rhythm that Pandey refers to isn’t just pointed to the wristspinner’s line and length. It transcended into his bowling action as well. “From being side-on, he was more open-chested. The stability that a spinner needed was lacking. If you are not side on, then you are compromising on your basics. And without basics, you are not really who you are,” the coach adds.
Changing patterns
What followed was not some extensive training. Coach Pandey reminded Kuldeep about his old self and what he was doing right back then. Lack of game time heading into the league, and then playing on flat decks meant he had compromised on something bigger. One of the strengths of any spinner is flight, but with batsmen hitting him the distance in the IPL, he had not only started to fire the deliveries in, but was also doing something more unusual.
“He was not delivering the ball, but rather pushing it from his hand. When you are flighting the ball, how will he get the ball to grip and turn? Spin doesn’t happen automatically. You have to get everything right. From alignment to release to rotation, you need everything to fall in place. When even one goes missing, you will be all over the place. So at Kanpur, we just worked on getting rid of those bad habits,” Pandey says.
Before Kuldeep linked up with the Delhi squad again, Pandey even made him play a practice fixture, just to ensure whatever he tried in practice was replicated in the middle. “Like I said earlier, as a spinner, you should ensure the rhythm is right. No matter whether you get gametime or not, in the practice sessions, you need to ensure you remain at your best and be ready. Now, if you look at him, he is backing up to doing the correct things. He is settling into a rhythm,” Pandey says.
Thanks to his indifferent returns in the IPL, Kuldeep has failed to make India’s T20 squad. In the lone Test against Afghanistan, he went wicketless in one innings and picked up three in the second. Then, in the last ODI at Lucknow, he went wicketless.
Others emerging
In the recent Test against Afghanistan, India handed a debut to Manav Suthar, and there was also Harsh Dubey in the mix. Having been an understudy to R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for years, in the Test team with Washington Sundar being the preferred option in overseas conditions, Kuldeep has once again lost ground. But India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate thought otherwise. “Look, the wickets aren’t always there, and I thought he bowled really well the other night. As someone who hasn’t played a continuous string of games for a while, no real concerns about him. We always like to play a wrist spinner or a mystery spinner. But certainly the way the game is evolving and the way guys go after the spin now, it’s the onus is back on the spinner to almost reinvent himself from time to time,” he said.
Spinners Manav Suthar and Harsh Dubey in picture. (CREIMAS)
At 31, Kuldeep is supposed to be at the peak of his prowess. But across formats, India have shown inclination to look at other options despite the variety that he offers. The lead spinner tag still remains far away for him, and with the likes of Manav Suthar, Harsh Dubey emerging, and Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja being preferred over him, Kuldeep is in a phase where he needs to keep churning out the results or risk missing the bus, particularly when his batting isn’t a fallback option.
“You have to fight for your spot in the team, and the team will always be picked based on balance and role specificity. So Kuldeep’s got that spot covered in terms of wrist spin. We know where he bats in the team, and sometimes you do want to go with an all-round spinner. If you look at the total impact on the game, playing on small grounds, playing in India, where the white ball travels, that decision is often a tactical one. It’s no slight on Kuldeep,” Ten Doeschate said.
At the nets on the eve of the third ODI in Chennai, Kuldeep bowled extensively at Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Whatever Pandey mentioned was there to witness. Now what he needs are wickets.
