Nottingham: India captain Virat Kohli is tempted to play his ‘key weapons’ Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the upcoming five-Test series against England, considering the wrists spinners’ stellar performance in the ongoing limited overs leg of the tour. This certainly is more bad news for Test spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
“Anything is possible with the selections for Tests and there might be a few surprises. Kuldeep is making a strong case for himself and so is Chahal. And looking at the way, the English batsmen have struggled against them, we might be tempted to do it,” said Kohli after India’s emphatic eight-wicket in the opening ODI Thursday.
Kuldeep took six wickets for 25 runs to restrict England to 268. Then Rohit Sharma (137 n o) fashioned the chase along with Kohli (75) and Shikhar Dhawan (40) to help India go one-up in the three-game series.
The English batsmen have failed to pick Kuldeep and he has already amassed 18 wickets on the tour including the two T20s against Ireland.
It is a fact that England batsmen are not reading me. I am also grateful to have got helpful wickets in most of the games I have played
Kuldeep Yadav
Meanwhile Kuldeep is hoping that he has done enough on the tour so far to stake his claim for a place in the Test XI when the series gets underway at Birmingham.
“I am hoping to get the Test call, and then let’s see what happens when the squad are announced in the next couple days,” said Kuldeep referring to the first Test starting, August 1.
Talking about his sensational spell here, Kuldeep said that he had bowled on concrete wickets in his formative years, and to get turning tracks in England was working well for him.
“Whatever cricket I played growing up, I played on cement wickets. I used to turn the ball on those surfaces too so I am very grateful to be playing on turning tracks now. I feel very lucky,” said the elated spinner.
“But, it is not just about the surface, and you should also have the ability to turn the ball. If your finger position is right, you are putting in the body effort, pivoting well and then the finger release is good, the ball will turn,” he added.