Kuldeep Yadav’s 4/40 against West Indies was not merely another successful spell from India’s premier wrist-spinner. It was another reminder of the strange place he occupies in Indian cricket: good enough to change matches, yet rarely securely enough to be treated as an automatic selection.
West Indies had started strongly, with Justin Greaves and John Campbell adding 135 for the opening wicket and India beginning to lose control of the innings. Kuldeep entered after the pair had settled, was attacked early, and still found a way to alter the direction of the contest. Campbell initially put him under pressure, including a slog-swept six when Kuldeep dropped short. Instead of retreating into defensive bowling, Kuldeep adjusted his length, altered his pace and trajectory, and gradually forced batters to play on his terms.
Campbell eventually fell attempting a sweep, Shai Hope followed, and Kuldeep later returned to remove centurion Greaves and Jewel Andrew in successive deliveries. His final figures of 10-0-40-4 included 34 dot balls, making him both India’s principal wicket-taking threat and one of their most economical bowlers.
The Kuldeep paradox
This is where the larger story begins, because Kuldeep’s career has repeatedly followed peculiar pattern. He produces a match-winning spell, disappears because of team combination, returns after a gap, and is then judged almost immediately on whether he can reproduce his best. The reason is rarely about his bowling alone. It is usually about what India want from the rest of the XI, particularly when they become anxious about extending their batting deep into the lower order.
Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar can all contribute significantly with the bat, whereas Kuldeep cannot provide the same insurance. Whenever India feel the need for additional batting depth, particularly without a genuine seam-bowling all-rounder balancing the side, Kuldeep becomes vulnerable.
That means selectors are not simply comparing Kuldeep with another spinner. They are effectively weighing his wicket-taking ability against the additional batting another player can provide, which makes his position inherently less secure. There is another layer to the debate because Kuldeep has occasionally returned from spells outside the XI and looked short of rhythm. His ODI returns dipped earlier this year, including a difficult series against New Zealand and a wicketless outing against Afghanistan, and those performances cannot simply be ignored.
Wrist-spin, however, is particularly dependent on rhythm and tiny technical details. Release point, wrist position, pace through the air, drop and length must work together, and when Kuldeep is slightly off, he can bowl just short enough for the batter to read him or compensate by becoming quicker and flatter.
That is where his stop-start selection becomes relevant. A player whose role is settled can survive two or three ordinary games, but Kuldeep often appears to be auditioning every time he returns to the side. The result can become a vicious cycle. India leave him out for balance, his rhythm is interrupted, and ordinary comeback strengthens the argument for another combination, and the side again gravitates towards players who offer more with the bat. Yet the evidence also shows why writing Kuldeep off after those quieter periods can be dangerous. Whenever he receives enough overs to settle into spell, he provides something those safer combinations cannot easily replicate: genuine wicket-taking threat through the middle-overs.
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Why West Indies spell matters
At 135 without loss, India did not simply need somebody to slow the scoring rate. They needed wickets, because another 10 overs of uninterrupted accumulation could easily have pushed West Indies towards a total beyond 300. Kuldeep provided exactly that intervention. He broke the opening partnership, removed Hope before he could rebuild the innings, and later returned to dismiss the set Greaves and Andrew in consecutive deliveries.
That is why his value cannot be measured only through economy rates or lower-order hitting. ODI cricket is frequently decided between overs 15 and 40, when the new-ball threat has disappeared and established batters begin controlling proceedings, and Kuldeep gives India a genuine attacking option during precisely that phase.
It also makes India’s selection dilemma more complicated than simply asking whether another batter is required. Do they protect themselves against a possible batting collapse, or select enough bowling quality to prevent the opposition from reaching the sort of total that demands that extra batting insurance in the first place? Kuldeep sits at the centre of that argument, and West Indies provided another reminder of why it refuses to disappear. When the game was beginning to move away from India, the specialist bowler they so often consider expendable was again the man who dragged them back into it.