In-form Kuldeep restores faith in the magic of wrist spin

Amidst the joy of India’s ninth title win in the Asia Cup and the exhilaration of watching young Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Verma's fearless batting, a glaring contradiction seems to have escaped notice.

- Sundeep Khanna

The highest wicket-taker of the tournament was a man who, just a month ago, was left warming the bench through the five-Test series against England.

In the UAE, Kuldeep Yadav took 17 wickets at an average of 9.29 in a format where batsmen are incentivised to throw their bat at everything. To put this in perspective, the next best was Shaheen Shah Afridi with 10 victims at an average of 16.40.

Despite such a performance, Kuldeep isn't a certainty for the Indian Test team when the next series comes up.

This confirms the sad reality that wrist spin is a dying art. Not one of the top teams in international cricket has much use for a wrist spinner anymore.

Which is a tragedy because wrist spinners are the true magicians of the game. If fast bowlers can make the ball spit and seamers make it talk, a wrist spinner makes it giggle.

That comes with all its attendant associations of mischief and irrationality and insouciance.