Kuldeep Yadav took 4 for 7 in 13 balls. ©BCCI
It was a night of googlies in Dubai, and not just the kind that turned past bats.
On face value, India’s wrist spinners bowled 25 balls between them, and 11 of those went the other way. Forty-four percent. It was enough to keep the UAE batters guessing, among them Harshit Kaushik, who was undone by a big-turning Kuldeep Yadav delivery that slipped through the gate. Yet, for all the trouble the googly caused, it was not the sharpest trick of the evening. The bigger ones came from places you would not expect.
The team sheet had its own back-of-the-hand deliveries. Jitesh Sharma, who had looked a certainty after long net sessions with the main lot and hours of fielding drills with T. Dilip, was left out. The gloves instead went to Sanju Samson, barely seen in India’s net sessions but the player Suryakumar Yadav had promised the team would “really take care of.” Samson had opened in the absence of Shubman Gill for most of last year but was now slotted into the middle order at No. 5, a position he had trialled briefly in Zimbabwe but has hardly occupied since. How that move will play out is anyone’s guess.
Also back was Kuldeep Yadav, ignored through five Tests in England even on pitches flatter and drier than the UK has seen in recent memory, and now picked on a grassy surface, no less for his first T20I since the World Cup final in Barbados.
“It was tough for me,” Kuldeep said at the post-match presentation. “I was working on my bowling and my fitness with Adrian [Le Roux] and everything came together tonight. In this format, the length is the key, reading what the batters are trying to do and reacting to it ball by ball.”
Missing altogether from the side was Arshdeep Singh, even with his differentiating left-arm angle, whose nerveless 19th over was a third of the reason India lifted that T20 World Cup trophy.
And then there was Shivam Dube, picked as a seam-bowling allrounder in the UAE, where spinners are usually expected to rule the roost. He bowled two overs, the same number he managed for his IPL side this past season, and finished with three wickets, two more than he’s collected in the last five IPL seasons combined. He may not have turned into the all-rounder he once promised to be, but in Dubai he looked every bit worth it with the ball, thanks in no small part to the work he has done with bowling coach Morne Morkel.
“The captain and coach told me beforehand that I would bowl,” he said. “During the England series, Morne gave me a couple of key tips. He told me to use the crease and bowl from outside [wide of the crease] and advised me on my slower deliveries and my run-up. Because of those tweaks, I have been able to bowl well. My pace is good and I feel confident with the ball in hand.”
Even the crowd felt like a variation on the norm. An India game usually comes with the guarantee of a crowd, a factory setting of noise and flags and chants. Instead, on a weeknight in Dubai, the stadium was not even half full. And quiet.
The toss added its own turn too. India’s men had gone 15 internationals without winning one, so when the coin finally landed their way, it felt unusual enough. Suryakumar Yadav, standing alongside Muhammad Waseem, added to the moment with a grin as he flicked the coin in the air and told his opposite number not to look.
On the field, perhaps the strangest of all was how Jasprit Bumrah looked the most negotiable of India’s bowlers, except when he bowled a perfect yorker to Alishan Sharafu. His fastest ball barely touched 140 and he ended the night as the most expensive among India’s wicket-takers. India’s attack had bite, just not from its usual set of teeth.
The UAE had their own twist, going from a decent PowerPlay of 41 for 2 to 57 all out. Lalchand Rajput, their coach, said afterwards that his players had been “overawed” by the occasion. The candour itself was unexpected, another variation to add to the night.
“They were overawed by India’s big names. We should have batted 20 overs,” Rajput said. “These spinners are rare because wrist spinners, like Varun Chakaravarthy, even top players struggle against them.”
What was not a googly was the gap between the teams. That still looked as wide as ever. Nor was Abhishek Sharma’s batting, which came as advertised and teed off with a first-ball six. But around those two truths, almost everything else on the night bent and turned and carried its own twist.
© Cricbuzz
