Champions Trophy | ‘Kuldeep has a miracle in his hands. He showed the world’ : Ashwin showers praise on Yadav | Cricket News

While the talk has been about Virat Kohli’s 51st ODI hundred during India’s six wicket win over Pakan in the Champions Trophy match at Dubai on Sunday, left-arm wr Kuldeep Yadav returned back to form in International cricket with a three-wicket haul. Yadav had made a comeback to international cricket after more than three months in January early this year post a sports hernia injury, a soft tissue injury that happens on an athlete’s groin area. With wickets of Slaman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah in the match against Pakan, the 30-year-old had his best wicket haul in his last four matches since injury and former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has backed the bowler for the comeback.
“People should understand that a spinner is making a comeback after an injury. Sometimes in our country, we don’t give so much time to the bowlers. If the batsman fails after a comeback, we tell that he has just come after an injury. If you think it happens with Virat and he plays 2-3 games, then what do they say? Everyone will say the king will be back. Kuldeep Yadav is also like that. He has some miracle in his hands. He does the job. He showed the world today,” said Ashwin on his Youtube channel Ash ki Baat.
Prior to the injury, Yadav had played in the ODI series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka followed the first Test in Test series against New Zealand followed his groin surgery weeks later. In the last three ODIs, Yadav had only two wickets under his belt. The 30-year-old spinner went wicket-less during India’s six-wicket win over Bangladesh and gave away 28 runs in his first six overs against Pakan. Yadav then removed Salman Ali Agha with an overspin delivery followed the dismissal of Shaheen Shah Afridi off the next delivery before he removed Naseem Shah later in his spell. Ashwin insed that spinners like Kuldeep can change the match within minutes. “As spinners, our life changes in two minutes. One more example from the match was Kuldeep Yadav. One Salman Ali Agha. Kuldeep bowled a beautiful googly like a top spin and Salman got beaten in the flight. It’s not easy to beat a batsman like Salman in the air. I have seen lots of batsmen. And the next ball, he trapped Shaheen Shah Afridi LBW. What an amazing bowling Kuldeep did,” said Ashwin.

Yadav has now picked up 15 wickets in the six ODIs he has played against Pakan. Ashwin also opined that the Dubai wicket had its challenges but Kuldeep utilized it to his advantage. People have to understand what Kuldeep’s injury was. Sports Hernia is what? It happens below the hip and it’s very important for a spinner for hip drive. He has just come back from that so it will take him some time. But another difficult thing in these conditions in Dubai is that the wicket is dead. No matter how many revolutions you will give, the ball will stop in the wicket and because of the rotations, a spinner’s ball gets fast after falling because of the rotations and goes out of pitch. If it is not doing with the surface, the cut grass makes it even more difficult. So Kuldeep did a fantastic job on such a wicket,” said Ashwin.