Many Variations, Flighted Delivery: Kuldeep Yadav’s Five Strengths

Here’s a look at some of Kuldeep Yadav’s major strengths as a bowler.

Kuldeep Yadav became the third Indian to take a hat-trick in ODIs after Chetan Sharma (1987) and Kapil Dev (1991) during the second ODI against Australia in Kolkata on Thursday. The 22-year-old has picked up 16 wickets in his short ODI career so far.

The Uttar Pradesh bowler maybe difficult to pick because he is a chinaman bowler, but he has lot more to offer than being just that.

Yadav has made his debut in all formats of the game and has looked in complete control during his spells so far.

Let’s look at some of his major strengths as a bowler.

1. Many Variations

Kuldeep Yadav doesn’t only have the leg-break and the googly up his sleeve, the bowler uses the bounce off the pitch, bowls the slider and flights the ball beautifully, among other variations.

The best part is that he hardly makes any changes to his action while releasing the numerous variations.

In the ODI hat-trick against Australia, Kuldeep bowled three different deliveries – the regular leg-break, tossed up leg-break and the googly – to dismiss Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar and Pat Cummins respectively.

2. The Flighted Delivery

Kuldeep, like India’s spinners traditionally, is excellent at tossing the ball up. And the most important aspect is the dip.

Once the ball goes up, it dips extremely late, which make the batsman unsure when to play his shot.

Ashton Agar played his shot before the ball pitched in the Kolkata ODI on Thursday. Kuldeep had also dismissed West Indies’ Shai Hope in a similar fashion in the second ODI in June.

Kuldeep’s delivery dipped very late, Hope missed the ball while trying to sweep the ball and got out LBW.

3. Wrong'un

If Kuldeep Yadav’s set of international wickets are assessed, one will find that he has taken a lot of wickets through the wrong’un.

The wrong’un or the googly is certainly one of the best deliveries in his repertoire. Even when he was on a hat-trick in the Kolkata ODI, the chinaman chose to put all his bets on the wrong’un to get a hat-trick, and he did!

Kuldeep doesn’t the just bowl the wrong’un, he can toss up a wrong’un, he can bowl with a scrambled seam and he can also make the ball drift a long way.

4. The Big Turner

Apart from all the lovely variations, Kuldeep Yadav can also produce the big turners. He can bowl a tight wicket-to-wicket line, but also at times takes the ball away a fair deal from the batsmen.

He dismissed Matthew Wade with a big turner in the Kolkata ODI. Wade went back to cut the leg-break, but inside-edged the ball onto his stumps instead.

Even in the fourth ODI against Sri Lanka in August, Kuldeep wrapped up the Sri Lankan innings by bowling Lasith Malinga out with a big turner.

5. Impeccable Temperament

Along with all the cricketing skills, Kuldeep also has an impeccable temperament. He comes across as a bowler who is always ready for a challenge and never shies away even after going for a lot of runs.

In the Kolkata ODI Kuldeep was hit for 30 runs off his first 4 overs and hadn’t picked up a wicket. He was smashed for two consecutive sixes by Glenn Maxwell in the 20th over.

But even after all that, Yadav found a way to come back and pick up not just wickets, but a hat-trick.