Former Indian spinner Pragyan Ojha reckons that Kuldeep Yadav would have been difficult to read in the ongoing pink ball Test against Australia. The chinaman bowler has been benched for the day-night Test while the off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been included in the playing XI.
In an exclusive interview with Sports Today, Pragyan Ojha recalls the day-night Test match played during the Duleep Trophy in which Kuldeep Yadav featured. He revealed that the batsmen could not pick his balls and variations with pink balls during the twilight period of 40-45 minutes when artificial lights take over the natural ones. Ojha, thus concluded, that it is difficult to read chinaman bowlers and leg-spinners in a day-night Test was difficult.
“Only thing which goes in favour of Kuldeep Yadav is when we were playing Duleep Trophy, the first pink-ball domestic tournament that we played, all the batsmen that I spoke to and especially during the twilight found it very difficult to pick the ball from his hands.
“Because you know the natural light was going down and the artificial light was coming. That is the time when even Ajinkya Rahane said that all batsmen need to be switched on. Those 40-45 minutes are very important. That’s when Kuldeep used to pick wickets. And chinaman bowlers or leg spinners are a little difficult to pick,” Pragyan Ojha told India Today journalist Rajarsh Gupta.
Pragyan Ojha reckons Ashwin can be lethal:
India has gone with the veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to play the maiden pink-ball Test in Adelaide. However, Ojha believes that Ashwin can be lethal and give breakthroughs like Nathan Lyon does for Australia. He feels that India has a good bowling attack with three good fast bowlers.
“However, saying that Ashwin is our No. 1 spinner. Ashwin can be lethal and he keeps things very tight, so does Nathan Lyon. I feel we have 3 fast bowlers who are very attacking,” Ojha added.
Meanwhile, India has opted to bat in the opening match and has as of now, lost the wickets of Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal, who was looking in a good position.