Kuldeep and Chahal have complemented each other beautifully says Ravi Shastri

02/18/2018

Indian coach Ravi Shastri feels that Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have gelled amazingly during the ongoing South African tour. The wrist-spinning duo of "Kul-Cha" has racked up a total of 33 wickets over six ODis as India wrapped up a dominating 5-1 series win over the home team.

Things looked bad for the Indian team last year as they lost to bitter rivals Pakistan in the finals of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy by a huge margin of 180 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja failed to pick up a wicket between them during the match as the rival batsmen hit the two bowlers all around the park in that loss.

That was when the Indian management along with skipper Virat Kohli turned towards their wrist-spinners in an effort to tackle such hard-hitting opponents. Coach Ravi Shastri feels that the young duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal has stepped up to the occasion and grabbed the opportunity presented to them with both hands as they put up a fine display in the recently concluded limited over series.

“I think even in my last stint, Virat and me have always discussed that we need wickets in the middle-overs. You know we have got to somehow be able to attack and find ways of breaking partnerships and not allowing the game to drift. So that was the idea. And then identifying the right kind of people to do the job.”

“Luckily for us, Kuldeep and Chahal have complemented each other beautifully. They bring great variety – it’s great for the viewers, it’s great for the spectators to see that kind of variety, when they come to watch a cricket match. Not just batting or fielding, but some classic spin bowling,” Shastri said in an interview to Indian Express.

The two young wrist-spinners have notched up a total of 33 wickets over the course of six ODI matches in South Africa. Kuldeep Yadav finished the ODI series with 17 wickets with a strike-rate of 18.0 while compatriot Yuzvendra Chahal bagged 16 at a strike-rate of 19.5. Along with Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan, the two share the credit for helping India beat the South Africans on their home turf for the first time in 25 years.

Coach Shastri was all praise for the duo as well as pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who has really emerged as a fine asset for the Indian team but admitted that work still needs to be done as far as the batting middle-order is concerned.

“(Yuzvendra) Chahal and (Kuldeep) Yadav have been brilliant and Boom (Jasprit Bumrah), what can I say about him. It’s been a fantastic effort. As I said, we’ll sit and go through all of this once we’re done here. The most important bit? Look at the middle-order. If we can work on that and improve, there’s no stopping this Indian team,” said Shastri.

In the last 5 IND vs SA ODIs, SA was bowled out twice, while IND was bowled out only once.
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Kuldeep and Chahal have complemented each other beautifully says Ravi Shastri

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