How Kuldeep Yadav’s top-spinner can get the new-improved Glenn Maxwell

Now in Hyderabad, India is likely to draft in chinaman Kuldeep Yadav to take out Australia’s in-form attacker.

“He bowled a lot of leg-spinners with a scrambled seam and then his wrong-un was scrambled seam as well, so it took a few balls to get used to it,” said Mathew Wade after Kuldeep had stunned the Aussies with a five-for in the 2017 Dharamshala Test.

Of those five wickets, Maxwell’s fall was the most alluring to watch. It was that scrambled googly that bewildered Maxwell, who hadn’t read it and couldn’t get any wood behind leather despite a desperate wobbly stumbling dance to somehow stop the ball.

It would be fascinating to see what Yadav does against Maxwell in Hyderabad. Last year, during an ODI, MS Dhoni had revealed the blueprint for Indian spinners against Maxwell. When Kuldeep was bowling, Dhoni shouted out, “Isko ghoomney wala ball daalna, andar ya bahar” (Give him the turner, legbreak or googly doesn’t matter).

Urge to hit

The idea stems from the fact that Maxwell can’t resist the urge to have a go at the spinners. There are no half-measures about his bat swings. Most times he launches himself into the ball with no self-doubt and total unadulterated commitment. What Dhoni was telling Kuldeep was this: any spin (in or out) could beat that intended swing.

But the preferred mode of attack for Maxwell by the Indians is the one that lands outside off and breaks further away. That’s what Chahal does best. Even that came in the same game last year. As soon as Chahal replaced Yadav, Dhoni chirped: “No no, don’t give him anything full. Bowl the one that goes away from outside off”. Chahal did that to dismiss his man.

It’s the same tactic that he used in the first T20 in the current series to take out Maxwell. Chahal has talked about it in the past. “My strategy for Maxwell is not to bowl at the stumps. That’s a wrong area. I tend to bowl outside the off stump and I vary my pace. I know if I can bowl 2-3 dot balls, he will step out and try to play an aggressive shot. However, in order to beat the batsman, the line and length has to be perfect.”

But Maxwell’s twin hits in the last game, the inside-out over covers and reverse-blast, has nicely stirred up the pot. Kuldeep can’t do three things: He can’t be too full in Maxwell’s arc, he can’t just flick in googly and think he can get his man, and he can’t turn the ball in to the legs.

The third of which won’t be easy for Kuldeep to stop. In fact, he probably shouldn’t stop. He likes that delivery not because he wants a wicket with it but it works as a perfect set-up ball. After turning the ball in to the legs of the right-hander, Kuldeep likes to use the top-spinner on the similar line. The trajectory of the follow-up ball fools the batsman as he is readying for another leg-side hit. He is surprised by the ball that spins on straight and also bounces to take the top edge. A lesser bowler would probably go for the googly but Kuldeep has more confidence in his art. A googly would be in theory easier to pick, even with the scrambled seam, and so he goes for the top-spinner which also bounces that bit more and comes on with almost same pace as the legbreak.

In the past, he has got Maxwell with the skidding short of length delivery that Maxwell has pulled to deep midwicket. He goes for that shot because of the length but the bounce and slightly-more pace has troubled him. But that is a risky option against an in-form batsman.

This is what makes the Maxwell vs ‘Kuldeep-Chahal’ tag team an exciting duel. With Maxwell no longer fixated to his favourite leg-side heaves but willing to counter the two wrist spinner with inside-out hits and reverse-sweeps, this should be a fascinating match-up.