Left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav was at his magnificent best at Kensington Oval when he picked four wickets for just six runs in three overs as India bundled out West Indies for a paltry 114 in the ODI series opener, here on Thursday.
After he ripped through the West Indies tailenders to keep their innings to only 23 runs, Kuldeep said the hard work done on improving his rhythm means the ball is coming out of his hand very well this year.
“To be very honest, I’ve been working on my rhythm in the last two years. My rhythm wasn’t very well last year, but now it’s coming out very well. Of course the increase in pace… With the same spin, drift, it’s very difficult for the batters to read. Especially in white-ball formats, I am focusing on the lengths and not on taking wickets,” the spinner said in a mid-innings chat with the broadcasters.
It was also the sixth time Kuldeep took a four-wicket haul outside Asia. He also revealed that his strategy was to mix up deliveries to spin a vicious web and bamboozle the batters.
“It depends on the conditions and situation. When they are five down, you have chances to try everything. Also important to mix up variations. If a left-hander comes in, you mix up some wrong’uns so they are not sure,” he said.
“That was my plan, to mix up my pace, lengths and variations. The wicket was very good for spinners, the way Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja, who took 3-37) bowled and I bowled just three overs,” he added.
The 28-year old also credited the fast bowling trio of Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur and debutant Mukesh Kumar for taking a scalp each.
“First of all, the fast bowlers did really well. (They) Got early wickets. The ball was spinning a bit and we tried to focus on our lengths. Wind was too much so we were controlling our speeds as well,” said Kuldeep.
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