KUL-HEADED OPERATOR

Wrist spinner Kuldeep’s ability to take crucial wickets and adapt when the going gets tough have made him a vital cog for India

- GOMESH S Mumba

AT the start of the World Cup, if anyone had said that spinners would thrive in the tournament because of the conditions that are expected to be on offer in India, it would have been seen as a logical assessment. What has happened, however, is something else. While Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa leads the charts with 22 wickets, seven of the next nine names on the list are pacers.

For India, after Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja, comes Kuldeep Yadav - 13th on the overall list of wicket-takers. His numbers 9 games, 14 wickets, 22.28 average, 4.15 economy might not read as ridiculous as those of Bumrah (17 wickets at an average of 15.64) or Shami (16 wickets, ave 9.56) or even Jadeja (16 wickets, ave 18.25).

But what Kuldeep has done in this World Cup for India is far more significant.

One look at a few of his victims David Warner, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Iftikhar Ahmed, Tanzid Tamim, and Jos Buttler-sums it up. Most of them were set batters, taking the momentum away from India or those who could have changed the fortunes of the respective teams in a short span of time.

Kuldeep has been the partnership breaker of sorts while also doubling down on impact when a new batter walks in.