Bharat Ramaraj
“The art of leg-spin is not just bowling a leg-break; the art of leg-spin is to examine, deceive and outwit. That is the whole art. And within it is the magic,” said Shane Warne in his autobiography, No Spin.
Many moons after Warne walked into the retirement life, Kuldeep Yadav has time and again looked to follow those golden nuggets from the legendary cricketer – inspect, deceive and outfox the opponent. We saw some glimpses of it during the India-United Arab Emirates game in the 2025 Asia Cup.
The left-arm wrist spinner toyed with all the UAE batters as they trudged back to the pavilion with a quizzical look on their faces. Most of them pushed and prodded only to eventually realise that the ball wouldn’t land where they thought it to be.
Rahul Chopra was done in by some flight and drift. For Muhammad Waseem, he bowled it with a flatter trajectory before prising him out LBW. Meanwhile, Harshit Kaushik had no answer to a googly.
Just peel through some of those wicket-taking deliveries, and you will find the hidden truth – The set-up. Sometimes, it was the big break that beat the batter. On occasions, it was the flipper that fizzed through. And then for him to usher in the googly and look for the killer blow. For a moment it felt as if his bowling template was akin to an agile chess player that was preying on the unsuspecting king.
Here, the line of the delivery is also a vital part of the armour. A wrist spinner would want to tease the batter with two different weapons – it could be the googly and leg-break – that are bowled with a similar line. In such a scenario, the batter has no other option but to read it from the hand. Here, too, Kuldeep seems to have mastered the art of subtlety.
Kuldeep also invariably sticks to his key strength. And that is to impart considerable revs on the ball. We saw ample evidence of this part of his template during the India-UAE encounter. As his coach, Kapil Pandey had once told this writer, “You should go for the big break. In that case, alongside over-the-wicket angle, you can also use round-the-wicket angle.”
Unfortunately, despite possessing a bagful of tricks and the required bowling smarts, Kuldeep has found it difficult to become a permanent member of the Indian set-up across formats. Lest we forget that in the shortest format of the game, Kuldeep has an astounding record while playing for India – 73 scalps at an average of just 13.39 and at a strike rate of under 12.
One of the reasons for Kuldeep not cementing his place in the Indian set-up is due to the current think-tank’s mindset of strengthening the batting unit. Although there is some merit in that maxim, it would be travesty if Kuldeep doesn’t play more often for India, and that too at the peak of his prowess. For the time being, his focus though will be on providing breakthroughs and powering India to yet another victory over Pakistan in India’s next Asia Cup fixture at the DIS. And it will take a brave man to bet against Kuldeep not making regular incisions through a rather inexperienced Pakistan batting unit.
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