High-class spinners don’t need to be a thinking bowler. For example, a Shane Warne is effective even if he doesn’t think much, but Ravichandran Ashwin has to do that in order to be ahead of the batsmen. So when you take a pause to understand the dynamics of a left-arm spinner’s engagement, you first get befuddled like many of us, as most batsman's mind designed to operate to right-handedness. Kuldeep, a fine bowler that he is, uses the advantage to his stride and coupled that up with his variations to pose a huge threat. He hardly needs to use his brain to think much. 

However, after more than a year on the international circuit, he has no longer been a bowler dependent on variation only rather has developed a strong knack of playing to the batsman's head. As most of the teams, who have come face to face with India in the last one year, have understood that there is no universal guide to playing spin, but there are minor tidbits to be garnered to build a substantial game plan. Marcus Stoinis knew that playing sweep is the best option and he took that way from the very first ball.

After dismissing Chris Lynn on the first ball of the 11th over, it seemed like the spinner was not prepared against the new RCB recruit as Stonis swept him for a couple. The left-arm wrist spinner then planned to bowl the ball on the leg-stump once again but seeing Stoinis already getting into the position, decided to stop at the delivery stride. When he bowled the next delivery, there was a minor exchange of instructions with Rohit Sharma, who even before Kuldeep bowled the ball started running towards the leg-slip region from the first-slip area. The ball though went for a boundary, it was a demonstration of the fact that Kuldeep has no more a bowler who runs in and bowl thinking his variations would do the job.

Krunal conceded runs and even failed to take the team down the line with the bat, but it was one-off. As per impact, he has shown that he is much better than anyone else in the country to take up the lone all-rounder’s spot. Unlike the England series, where India experimented with Siddarth Kaul and Deepak Chahar, the selection of Khaleel Ahmed too appears to have been catalyzed by a desire to have a left-arm pace option. Coming to Rishabh Pant, everyone knows what he brings to the table and is a much better T20 batsman than MS Dhoni any day. 

Glenn Maxwell is an interesting cricketer. He can be the pack leader at one night and take on the spinners and pacers with equal ease and can be ridiculously ineffective in others. That was the pain of being a Maxwell fan - you can never be predictable or putting money on him to satisfy you. And today was no different.

Talk about being the bunny.