He might have warmed the bench for the entirety of the long summer series in England, but back into the team and with the opportunity the prove himself once again, Kuldeep Yadav was on fire as he rattled through the UAE middle order with three wickets in a single over during India’s Asia Cup opener.
After a balanced start to the match, Kuldeep cracked the game wide open as he accounted for Rahul Chopra, captain Muhammad Waseem, and Harshit Kaushik in the space of an over, leaving the home team limping at 50/5 inside 9 overs.
After a phenomenal run of form to start off 2025 with the Champions Trophy under his belt and a strong season in the IPL, Kuldeep continues to go from strength to strength as he develops his skill as a left arm leg-spinner.
It was three different deliveries that Kuldeep used to take the three wickets: first the regulation leg break to have Chopra caught on the boundary as he tried to attack, then the flipper to slip under the horizontal bat of the sweeping Waseem, and finally a googly to lefty Kaushik that crashed through the bat-pad gap to make a mess of the stumps.
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Praise heaped on Kuldeep after destructive over
“What a talent,” praised Pakistan legend Wasim Akram on commentary duties for Sony Sports, crediting Kuldeep for his ability to read batters in the shortest format of the game and consistently bowl in threatening areas with a host of variations.
Kuldeep’s wrecking job of the UAE means that the home team is struggling to get a challenging total on the board. To start off the innings, Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Sharafu with a sensational yorker, before Kuldeep’s spin partner Varun Chakravarthy picked up the second of the innings.
After Kuldeep’s remarkable over cracked open the batting and exposed the lower middle order, Shivam Dube and Axar Patel also joined the action in terms of wickets, leaving the UAE side in a lot of trouble.