New Delhi/In popular culture, déjà vu has been described as the supernatural sensation of doing or seeing something that has happened before. Ekana of Lucknow Cricket That familiar feeling resurfaced in the minds of Indian fans at the stadium when India spinner Kuldeep Yadav trapped England captain Jos Buttler with a brilliant ball.
On the first ball of the 16th over, Kuldeep bowled a leg-break, his stock delivery, outside the off-stump. Seeing this, Buttler wanted to go on the backfoot and attempt a cut from the off side. But the ball swerved dramatically and went through the gate and hit the top of the middle-stump.
Buttler was bent over the bat and wondered what had just happened to the ball which had rotated a massive 7.2 degrees. On the other hand, when England lost half their team, and ultimately lost by 100 runs, Kuldeep was in celebratory mode, spreading his arms and hugging his teammates.
Buttler’s criticism immediately reminded fans of how the left-arm wrist spinner had bowled out Pakistan’s Babar Azam in a similar manner during the 2019 Men’s ODI World Cup in Manchester. Among the 46,000 fans who watched the amazing scene live in Lucknow, there was one who felt extremely proud – Kapil Pandey, Kuldeep’s childhood coach.
“I had no plans to watch the game in Lucknow. But Rajiv Shukla invited me to come and watch the game. Also, the World Cup is a huge event and then I felt like watching Kuldeep’s bowling closely.
He said, “I met Kuldeep even at night and asked him to bowl well. He replied, ‘I will bowl well in the match and you don’t need to worry, you can rest assured.’ Also, he is very confident, which is reflected in his performances so far.”
Pandey told IANS, “My happiness increased further after seeing Kuldeep dismissing Butler in front of my eyes. I saw Babar Azam out on TV and after seeing Buttler get out live, I felt very proud to see Kuldeep doing well. He has been bowling very well and has been in top form throughout his career.”
Pandey believes that similarities exist between Kuldeep, who dismissed Buttler and Azam in the World Cup, but the left-arm wrist spinner’s dismissal of Glenn Maxwell during the India-Australia match in Chennai remains close to his heart. Is the closest. Kuldeep’s sharp leg-break came sharply off the pitch and Maxwell missed it completely as he shaped up to play the pull, only to have his leg-stump dislocated.
2023 has been a year where Kuldeep has been among the wicket-takers for India, a story that is playing out in the ODI World Cup. With his turn, bounce, drift and zip, he is constantly among the wickets. So far, Kuldeep has taken ten wickets in six matches at an average of 26.10 and an economy rate of 4.50.
For the only time in the tournament, Kuldeep was put under pressure against New Zealand in Dharamsala, where aggressive shots from Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra meant he conceded 48 runs in his first five overs. But Kuldeep continued to attack without changing his length and increased his pace, resulting in things going faster.
Mitchell could have been caught at long-off, but Jasprit Bumrah missed the chance. Subsequently, Kuldeep had Tom Latham out LBW and Glenn Phillips caught in the in-field, while conceding only 25 runs in his last five overs.
“Kuldeep was initially unable to understand the behavior of the wicket in Dharamshala. When the batsman attacks the bowler, his mentality becomes to protect himself. But you can’t do that because if you become defensive as the main spinner, you will put the team in trouble. ,
“In this situation, attacking was the best option and Kuldeep came back into attack by using googlies, getting some spin and even bowling some fast balls. Everyone is human and it takes time to understand the wicket, which happened with Kuldeep and he came back with a brilliant second spell.”
Although Pandey believes that Kuldeep still has a lot to do, he credits his start to becoming a trump card for India to his hard work on bowling lengths during the Covid-19 lockdown. But he was not given a match by Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2021 and required surgery due to a knee injury, which kept him out of action.
“If one watches, he has rarely pitched it short and has not yet bowled a full toss in the World Cup. Maintaining his length has strengthened his level and made him an even bigger player.”
