India looks to Chahal-Kuldeep for an encore

Indian captain Rohit Sharma and Chahal congratulate Kuldeep Yadav during the first Twenty20 International in Cuttack.   |

There seems no end to the woes of the visitors, who slumped to a heavy 93-run defeat in the series-opener in Cuttack.

When R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were omitted from the limited overs leg of India’s tour to Sri Lanka earlier this year, many believed the selectors’ official line of the seasoned duo having been “rested”. Some thought of it as a deliberate ploy to blood two talented wrist-spinners in place of the senior duo, which was on the decline with the white ball.
Cut to the end of the year and Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have emerged as India’s first two choices in the spin department in white ball cricket. The leggie from Haryana and his chinaman younger friend from Uttar Pradesh displayed their wicket-taking prowess in the first Twenty20 on Wednesday.
Despite the conditions continuing to be adverse for them, the duo will be hoping to play a stellar role in the ‘street food capital of India’ and help the home team seize the series at the Holkar Stadium on Friday.

Squads:

• India: Rohit Sharma (C), K L Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Basil Thampi and Jaydev Unadkat.
• Sri Lanka: Thisara Perera(C), Upul Tharanga, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Janith Perera, Danushka Gunathilaka, Niroshan Dickwella, Asela Gunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dasun Shanaka, Chaturanga de Silva, Sachith Pathirana, Dananjaya De Silva, Nuwan Pradeep, Vishwa Fernando and Dusmantha Chameera.
• Match starts at 1900 hours IST.

Dew factor

With the winter having set in, just like it did at the Barabati on Wednesday, the dew is likely to make a major impact on Friday night. Curator Samandar Singh Chauhan and his team have been spraying anti-dew spray for the last couple of days but that will have little impact if the mercury dips to a single-digit. Besides, the Holkar Stadium has one of the shortest boundaries with a 69-yard fence.
Chahal and Kuldeep would be hoping to repeat their performance against Australia in an ODI in September. Aaron Finch and Steven Smith were running away with the game, making optimum use of short boundaries. But Kuldeep dismissed both against the run of play and Chahal then bamboozled the ferocious Glenn Maxwell to put India on top.
It is this wicket-taking ability of Chahal and Kuldeep that has stood them apart from Ashwin and Jadeja. For months, before being dropped, Ashwin and Jadeja seemed to have gotten into run-saving mode rather than going for wickets.
Once he took over the reins of the limited overs teams from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli preferred wicket-taking bowlers and this worked like a boon for Chahal and Kuldeep. To their credit, the two have utilised virtually every opportunity offered to them.
Despite featuring in virtually all of India’s white-ball matches at home, the diminutive Chahal has not shied away from asking batsmen to go after him. This has resulted in him increasing his wicket-count and in fact sitting atop the list of highest wicket-takers in T20Is in 2017 after his four-wicket haul in Cuttack.
Kuldeep, on the other hand, has been used sparingly, perhaps indicating the team management’s wish to not expose his rare ability of left-arm wrist-spin ahead of the bigger challenges lying ahead.
The duo’s success has virtually ensured that the selectors could well be forced to consider Ashwin and Jadeja only as red-ball specialists, at least till the 2019 World Cup in England and the 2020 World Twenty20 in Australia.
Chahal and Kuldeep would be hoping to plot a second Sri Lanka downfall in three nights.