India’s spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav were once indispensable partners in Team India. However, In the recent past, team management’s experiment in the playing XI has separated the partnership between the duo. The team management prefers to go with one of them in the field. Meanwhile, Shoaib Akhtar has backed Chahal to play every game for India beside he thinks Kuldeep Yadav is a ‘worrying factor’ for the team.
In the recently-concluded ODI series against New Zealand, Kuldeep Yadav was dropped from playing XI after his poor show in the first ODI.
In place of Chinaman, leg spinner Chahal was given the opportunity in the other two games.
Moreover, Chahal was successful in breaking the partnership of opener Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls in the second and third ODI. Also, he was more economical than Yadav.
According to former Pakistan pacer, Chahal has special skills that differentiate him from other spinners in team India. Akhtar even labelled the spinner as “street-smart” and said that the leg-spinner should never be benched.
“(Ravindra) Jadeja contains, he gets wickets occasionally, Kuldeep (Yadav) didn’t perform well but (Yuzvendra) Chahal was good. He should never be benched. Chahal has some tricks which can confuse the batsmen. He is a complete leg-spinner. He dominates the batsmen, he is street smart,” said Shoaib Akhtar in his Youtube channel.
Kuldeep Yadav – a worrying factor for India:
Akhtar was surprised to see the performance of Kuldeep against New Zealand. He expressed that the spinner is facing problems in the field and needs to work hard.
“Kuldeep to me looks to be a bit subdued, he is not playing freely. He was never really in the game, that’s a worrying factor for India. Apart from Chahal, nobody looked like picking wickets in the middle overs,” Akhtar added.
Meanwhile, India and New Zealand will head to play the first Test of the two-match Test series at Seddon Park in Wellington from 21st February.