Day three of the second Test between India and the West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds on Sunday was as much a tale of two halves for India as it was for their top-performing bowler. Kuldeep Yadav romped to a fifth five-wicket haul in his 15th Test match on Sunday, looking penetrative and threatening every time he took the ball here. And then when he returned for the second innings after India enforced the follow-on, he was targeted by West Indies’ batsmen very effectively, leaking 53 runs in his 11 overs, being hit for five fours and two sixes as the visitors shrunk lead to under 100 runs, ending the day’s play at 173 It appropriately defined the high-risk, high-reward approach of India’s mystery spinner; his deceit and game-turning deliveries go hand-in-hand with his tendency to get hit for plenty of runs. Wrist-spinners naturally impart more revolutions on deliveries than finger spinners, but the result is that they cannot have the same consistency in line and length. So, when contrasted with the discipline and tightness of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, the former in particular, Kuldeep’s artistry with his variations stands out as much as his tendency to leak runs when batsmen go on the offensive. It is a trait with most wrist-spinners. It is still evident, however, that Kuldeep’s presence in the line-up at home, and also possibly abroad, can be game-changing; the balance provided by India’s finger-spinners only reinforces that fact. Even more so, considering India’s rethink about the kind of attack they will build for home Tests going forward, starting with the two games against world champions South Africa next month. Ahead of the start of the series in Ahmedabad, skipper Shubman Gill had bluntly explained what kind of wickets he would like to see at home. The idea is to do away with the rank turners that were produced too often over the last three years; the disastrous 0-3 washout to New Zealand last year very much being a consequence of that. Those kinds of wickets have allowed even average opposition spinners to run through India. 10 of Ajaz Patel’s 85 Test wickets came in the first innings of the Mumbai Test in 2021; his countryman Mitchell Santner, who has a Test average of 33.37, took 13 wickets in Pune last year. So, the Indian think tank believes there needs to be pitches that have more balance between bat and ball. In Ahmedabad, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah looked dangerous on a surface that was greener than usual and had something in it for the seamers. At the Kotla, there was a deceptively slow turner; not exactly a paradise for spinners the way it has been for the batters. India vice-captain Jadeja told reporters here on Saturday that spin has been hard to buy in the national capital, something that they fully expected. “We have asked for slow turners, not rank turners. This is what we got, so we have to work hard for wickets,” he said. “Every ball is not spinning, and there is not much bounce either. So we are having to put our shoulders into it and try to generate something. The slower balls, without bounce, are allowing the batsmen to go on the back (foot) and negotiate. So we are having to mix, slow and fast in the air, with lots of revolutions. Try and bring in different variations.” On such conditions which have runs on offer and the pitch is on the slower side like the one at Kotla, require the abilities of a spinner who can turn matches on their heads with guile and variety, not merely through assistance from the pitch. That’s what Kuldeep provides to this Indian team. Few spinners have as varied an arsenal in the current Indian side. Kuldeep’s ability to fox due to the different lines, spins, and speeds he imparts on his deliveries was fully on display during his five-wicket haul in the first innings, four of which fell in the first two sessions on Sunday. A peach of a delivery castled the off-stump of Shai Hope, the most promising hope for the West Indies team’s overnight rearguard. It was a flighted ball that landed on off-stump line with just enough drift to catch Hope out, who, expecting a sharp turn, was caught out with his front defence to the wrong line. The next was wicketkeeper-batter Imlach, who was caught on the back foot by a ball that did turn in sharply. Justin Greaves would gift his wicket attempting the reverse-sweep and getting caught leg-before after totally misjudging one of the 30-year-old’s flighted leg-breaks. Sunday’s action would point towards India’s upcoming plans for their spinners: its risks and its rewards. All of them will centre around the cunning of their left-arm wrist-spinner.
