Jos Buttler would remember the ball. It smiled at Buttler before it gnashed its evil teeth. The England white-ball captain stepped back, to work the ball through the leg-side. But it dropped and fizzed, spat back from outside the off-stump to skittle the middle stump.
He would remember the bowler too; it was Kuldeep Yadav in their 2023 World Cup duel, wearing a playful smile and putting his bouncing curls in order. He has been a familiar nemesis for England, from their first sighting of him, in Nottingham in 2018, where Yadav bamboozled six of them, to their last encounter in Dharamshala, where he scythed through their top order with a five-for. Experience has not been England’s best teacher when fathoming Yadav—several hours with the Merlin, the bowling machine that simulates wrist spinners, international games and IPL exchanges have not made them any wiser in nullifying the left-arm wrist spinner’s wiles, barring perhaps a couple of exceptions.
Buttler and his sidekicks stumble into him again in the Guyanese suburb of Providence, where the surface has historically aided the spinners. A worse news perhaps is that he still weaves magic, like the Glenn Maxwell ripper, making Yadav versus the England middle-order contest a fascinating sub-plot. It could be the spectacular match-up—England’s bravado brigade of Buttler (if he survives Jasprit Bumrah), Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook and Phil Salt against a spinner with multilayered deception. In his early days, Yadav bemused batsmen with his variations, turn and flight. The re-skilled version deceives them with mastery of length and modulating of pace too. He might have traded some of his romance for precision, aggression for utility, but has emerged as a more daunting proposition.
So much so that without a doubt, he has been India’s lead spinner this tournament. Not just in terms of the impressive numbers he has stacked (seven wickets in three games, 6.25 runs an over, a wicket every10th ball, 31 dot balls) but in the effect he has produced, in the control and penetration he has provided in the middle overs, and in the belief that it is better to negotiate him safely than attempt anything outrageous.
But England batsmen wouldn’t merely sit back and milk him for singles and twos. They are preternaturally wired to uncork their strokes, a philosophy that predated Bazball. Buttler improvises masterfully; Brook, a fabulous destroyer of spin, prefers to lofts them down the ground; Salt generates vein-crushing power; Bairstow slogs-sweeps disdainfully; Livingstone’s long reach dishevels the length of spinners, often forcing them to drop shorter.
Their approach to spinners have been contrasting—they have bossed off-spinners, though not of elite level; but left-arm spinners and leg-spinners have exercised a constrictive hold over them. Adam Zampa snared four (for 28 runs) and Keshav Maharaj snaffled two (for 24 runs), making their strategies against India more exciting.
Yadav on a turning track could be stuff England nightmares are made of. It has been a classical narrative in India-England match-ups in the World Cup. It had produced batting masterclasses against spin-bowling—Graham Gooch conquering India’s spinners with sweep in the 1987 semifinal, Buttler and Hales tearing Ravi Ashwin and Axar Patel apart in the 2022 World T20 last-four clash. It has exposed England’s vulnerabilities against spinners too—Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla combining memorably in Colombo in 2012, or Jadeja keeping them on a leash in Lord’s in 2009.
The daunting proposition for England is that it’s not only Yadav they have to neuter, but also Patel and Jadeja. Patel has quietly played the sidekick role to perfection, tying ends up with change of angles, speed and release points. His thrifty spells have gone unnoticed, like the 2-0-11-1 spell against Pakistan. The latter tried to target him in the 16th over of the game, but eked out only two runs. Panic sank in, and Pakistan eventually folded up. Against Australia, he grabbed a one-handed blinder to disunite Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head, before stifling them with a three-run over. Urgency kicked in and Yadav winked out Maxwell with a wicked googly. Patel then ejected Marcus Stoinis with a flat ball angled into him, which he tried to reverse sweep. A lesson for England batsmen—it’s imprudent to sweep or reverse sweep, because he’s quick through the air, skiddy along the pitch and always on the stumps. He doesn’t offer much width to cut, or flight to swipe down the ground.
So effective the pair of contrasts has been that Ravindra Jadeja has barely been summoned to bowl (just 10 overs in six games), but he offers experience, guarantee, and of course threat, especially if Guyana turns out to be even a semi-turner. Irrespective of the surface, the threesome could be a fearsome proposition. Patel suffocates, Jadeja probes, and Yadav conjures balls that live in batsmen’s minds as scars.
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