India versus West Indies: Kuldeep Yadav’s mastery with ball, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s big partnership help India level series | Cricket News

If India are to do decently well in the middle overs at the upcoming World Cup as a bowling unit, it’s already clear that much would depend on Kuldeep Yadav. On flattish tracks, no one else is likely to take wickets against the run of play as him. There is Yuzvendra Chahal to an extent but he can’t be punted on to take wickets as consently as Yadav.
It’s the nature of his bowling perhaps as left-arm wr spin is still a rare commodity but he does have the batsmen a touch hesitant. More than others for sure on a bright sunny Florida day that promised a 210-plus total but Yadav pegged the West Indies to 178, a par score on this track. If there were any concerns about the chase, it was over pretty soon once Shubman Gill, who were out to three single-digit scores this series, joined the enterprising Yashasvi Jaiswal to take India home with three overs to spare.
Recently, this newspaper had reported how the former spinner and selector Sunil Joshi had worked on Yadav. “If you look at Kuldeep 2.0, his front arm is nice toward the target, his bowling arm is towards the target, he is running towards the target. Shorter stride, there is a free follow through, he has got quicker through the air. You look at the way he is bowling now,” Joshi had said. All of those traits were visible on Saturday night. And the body alignment meant he could hustle through the crease and get the ball to fizz a touch.

India make it 2-2, courtesy Gill and Yashasvi’s brilliance 💪Decider tomorrow 🤞.
.#WIvIND #INDvWIAdFreeonFanCode pic.twitter.com/FRFjzcThFM
— FanCode (@FanCode) August 12, 2023
West Indies were more than ready to help him along. Nicolas Pooran tried to smash Yadav’s first ball, a googly, for a six but went to the on side and couldn’t clear long-on. A few balls later, Yadav squeezed out a slider and had Darren Powell searching for the ball outside off. The next delivery was a googly from the leg stump line, and Powell was opened up like a bottle-top, trying to nurdle it to the onside, and the resultant edge was snapped up at slip. Suddenly West Indies were 57 for 4 at the end of that seventh over. They had rollicked along to 55 for 2 at the end of Powerplay, toying with Axar Patel and co., but ran into Yadav.
Once he had the double strike in his first over, it was clear that West Indies were going to try to play his next three overs with greater caution, and that’s how it played out. With Mukesh Kumar once again doing well in his role as the end-overs special with his accurate yorkers either at stumps or well-outside off as per the field and plan set, West Indies ended up on a par total.

“ʙᴀᴛᴛɪɴɢ, ᴛᴜ ʙᴀʜᴏᴛ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ ʜᴏɢᴀʏɪ ʜᴀɪ.”#WIvIND #INDvWIAdFreeonFanCode pic.twitter.com/FWm8rjacYN
— FanCode (@FanCode) August 12, 2023
If India had one major concern at the top of the order from this series, it was Shubman Gill’s form. The way Yashasvi Jaiswal started helped him ease into his knock here and Gill slowly began to find his touch. Some poor bowling helped. There were quite a few shortish stuff, and Gill pulled them apart. Obed McCoy started it, Odeon Smith followed it, and suddenly, Gill was up and running. It was a back of length from McCoy in the 4th over that started it off and Gill unfurled his pull shot for a six; it wasn’t his signature short-arm as the follow through was more than usual, ending up behind his head. the end, the big hits were flowing without much fuss; he crash-landed Romario Shepherd’s slower on in the 16th over well over long-on, before he fell in the same over, helicoptering an aerial flick to deep midwicket, with India 14 runs adrift of the target.
The bowling wasn’t really testing, but considering Gill’s recent form, this would have pleased the likes of Rohit Sharma. Else, they were staring not only at middle-order blues, bowling worries, but even at top order.

Two wickets in the 1st over of the spell!
Chahal in 1st T20I Kuldeep today 💪#WIvIND #INDvWIAdFreeonFanCode pic.twitter.com/Vos81nSMbx
— FanCode (@FanCode) August 12, 2023
Jaiswal was the more expansive of the two; time and again he would clear his front leg and give it a good-old smash. Like Gill, his first few boundaries were off shortish balls. Once they corrected their length, Jaiswal started to do his thing: moving around the crease to wallop through the line or heave it across or lap it over. There was one reverse swept six of the left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein
West Indies would rue Pooran and Powell’s wickets but were shored up Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer. Hope looked pretty comfortable against spin, and had the confidence to repeatedly go inside-out with the turn to the off side. He crashed Chahal and Axar through covers and the one time he tried to go across to the leg side for a big hit, he fell, holing out to long-on. Hetmyer started slowly, but found his wings in the end overs. There was one deft late steer of Hardik Pandya’s slower one down to wide third man boundary; apart from that it was the typical Hetmyer slugs that ruled the day. But it was always clear that West Indies didn’t have the score to test India, especially on this track, especially after Gill also joined in the run-fest led Jaiswal.