How Kuldeep Yadav could be India’s game-changer at Edgbaston

After two days, one spent travelling and the other involving a team bonding exercise, India’s cricketers hit the ground running on Friday morning at Edgbaston, the venue of the second Test starting on Wednesday, in what was officially a closed-door, off-camera training session.

The entire squad was in attendance — Harshit Rana, drafted in as cover for the Leeds Test, has been released — including Jasprit Bumrah, who, it is being said, is likely to sit out this match. Bumrah will only play two of the remaining four Tests, not ideal, but the think-tank’s decision to give him the leeway to manage his body and his workload, given what he brings to the table, is perfectly understandable.

India’s ‘only’ strike force 

Bumrah is India’s primary — the less charitable might say ‘only’ — strike force though even his presence couldn’t prevent England from hunting down 371 in the fourth innings with relative ease at Headingley. As India seek to draw level, the magnitude of their task will be made tougher if Bumrah doesn’t play because as Gautam Gambhir pointed out the other day, even 1,000 runs on the board doesn’t guarantee victory, but taking 20 wickets in a game can catalyse victory more often than not.

Assuming Bumrah doesn’t play, or even if he does, India must look at the resources available and figure out who is best suited to be a wicket-taking threat. The needle should rest on Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist-spinner who would have been a handful on a wearing, final-day track in Leeds and against the lower-order in England’s first innings.

At 30, Kuldeep is bowling as well as he ever has. He has a greater understanding of his craft, and even though he has been playing internationally for eight years, is still hard to work out from a batter’s perspective. International cricket hasn’t seen too many left-arm wrist-spinners, Test cricket even less so, and though it is common knowledge that Kuldeep’s stocky delivery spins into the right-hander, knowing it is one thing, playing it with any authority is quite another.

Forgettable game for Thakur

In Leeds, India brought Shardul Thakur into the Test mix after an 18-month hiatus. In his first Test since Centurion in December 2023, the ‘bowling all-rounder’ — Gambhir’s classification — had a game to forget except for a brief patch late in the England chase, when he dismissed Ben Duckett and Harry Brook off successive deliveries. Batting at No. 8, Thakur managed just one and four, out caught behind the stumps both times playing extravagant strokes with little deference to the match situation.

He wasn’t called on to bowl until the 40th over of the England first innings and sent down only six per cent of the total overs (100.4), going at 6.33 an over. In the second, he picked up two for 51 from 10 overs. Introduced by Shubman Gill in the 18th for a three-over burst, he wasn’t brought back on till the 53rd over. Thakur didn’t exactly do justice to the ‘bowling’ or the ‘all-rounder’ labels. India must turn to Kuldeep before it is too late; instead of or alongside Thakur is their choice.

21
No of wickets claimed by Kuldeep Yadav in six Tests against England

This article first appeared on Mid Day