How Kuldeep 2.0 emerged as India's most impactful spinner vs England

As soon as Englands last wickets fell Indias spin wizard Kuldeep Yadav tossed the 57 oversold red SG Test ball towards Ravichandran Ashwin who made his 100th test appearance But the milestones achiever tossed it back towards KuldeepAfter another round of catching like an insistent elder brother Ashwin literally forced the ball into Kuldeeps palms Ashwin registered a fourwicket haul in the 100th test Kuldeep on the other hand bagged five wicketsBut the 37yearolds sweet gesture of depositing the ball in Kuldeeps hands may have subtly been a change of guard in terms of who the leader of the spin attack will be in the coming yearsSo far Ashwin has 21 wickets with one innings to go in the ongoing series against England and Kuldeep has 17 scalps registered to his name But in terms of impact the man from Kanpur after a rollercoaster ride in the past few years has stood head and shoulders above his esteemed seniorsAlso Read IN PHOTOS Oldest Indian players to complete 100 TestsIndias spin wizard Kuldeep sent back the visitors best batsman Zak Crawley and also brought back the memories of Babar Azams wicket in ICC World Cup 2019 when the spinner was at his absolute best in the white ball formatA beautifully tossedup delivery outside the off luring Crawley into a lunge drive before sneaking in between the bat and pad leaving the batter dazed It was everything that makes up a leftarm wrist spinners daydreamIn a 2019 Test in Sydney where he got a fivefor the then head coach Ravi Shastri had announced that he would be Indias lead spinner in overseas Tests but that particular team management never walked the talk A subsequent loss of form and a careerthreatening knee surgery pushed him further down the pecking order Those close to him recall how when he needed a comforting arm around his shoulder Kuldeep had practically no one standing by himThis is something that current skipper Rohit Sharma has managed to do with elan If one checks Kuldeeps stats he has felt more empowered across formats whenever Rohit has been the captainKuldeeps childhood coach Kapil Pandey a tough cookie from Azamgarh a thoroughbred in Mumbai club cricket and someone who has navigated through the Kanpur maze wouldnt allow his ward to throw in the towelAlso Read IND vs ENG 5th Test Rohit Jaiswal pummel END after Kuldeep Ashwin spin showHe has three hattricks in white ball cricket but I completely understand that team combination is always paramount Pandey who runs his academy in Kanpur told PTI during a recent interactionKuldeep was back in his elements when he played against Bangladesh in December 2022 picking eight wickets and scoring a valuable 40 only to be replaced by a mediocre Jaydev Unadkat in the very next game But that Bangladesh series was the turning point for Kuldeep feels PandeyBefore the tour of Bangladesh we worked on his flight line and length The frame of mind for maximum bowlers now is that we dont need to use flight It is just about containing the flow of runs and get wickets in the process like they do in T20 Pandey saidHow Kuldeep countered BazballThere are times when cricket as a game is overanalysed and solutions become complicated Pandey wanted his best student to follow his process of getting wickets in ODI games where he has enjoyed commendable successAap batao Bazball hai kya Old fashioned ODI cricket hi toh hai You tell me what is Bazball It is just old fashioned ODI cricket Pandey summed it up lucidlyIn yesteryears ODIs a good score in 50 overs was 250 at five runs per over Now just translate that to 90 overs and it is 450 runs in a day That is exactly how England played the game They took Test batting into ODI modeSo Kuldeep was simply told that way you bowl the way you bowl in ODIs Bring that aspect of your bowling into TestsTweaks in techniqueThe Kuldeep who looked miserable in Chennai during the 2021 home series against England had a diagonal runup with a slower armspeed That was the first thing that was changedPost surgery his runup to the crease became straighter arm speed increased The moment arm speed increases the balls spins at a higher speedThe next part which was also the most important was weight transfer while delivering the ballThat is called pivot where a spinner with his twist of waist puts the entire weight of his body on the bowling shoulderFor a spinner the pivot is weight transfer while he pivots he needs to lean forward more the classic example is Shane Warne While pivoting you would see how much his bowling shoulder used to lean forward due to this transfer of weight The ball would whiz at a faster clip while travelling through the airKuldeep also became better in using the footmark patches of his teammates bowling from other end While training in Kanpur Pandey always kept three lefthanders and three righthanders ready for Kuldeep so that if his rhythm was disrupted in match situations he could deal with itEarlier he would pitch it a bit up and would always look at the batter The Kuldeep that bowls now concentrates on the good length spot instead of looking at the batterWith PTI Inputs