Indian cricket: How did the Kul-Cha combination stage a comeback?

Kolkata: The return of the ‘Kul-Cha’ combination (a coinage for Kuldeep Yadav-Yuzvendra Chahal by fans as a take-off on the flatbread on an Indian menu

), who was at the helm of Indian spin attack in white ball cricket till two years back, has been one of the biggest talking points ahead of the series against the West Indies in less than a week’s time.

The selectors have also drafted in Ravi Bishnoi, the precocious leg spinner from Rajasthan who has made a big impact in his two seasons of IPL so far, as the third option in a move which clearly indicates a shift towards the wrist spinners again - with two World Cups in both limited overs formats looming in the horizon. What caused such a change of heart to bring back Yadav, a rare breed of a Chinaman bowler, after being in the wilderness for two years - a phase when even he was warming the dugout for his IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders?

The reunion of the duo for a full blown series (both of them were picked up for a second string team which visited Sri Lanka in July last year under Shikhar Dhawan’s captaincy) possibly signals life coming a full circle for them. It was in the aftermath of India receiving a pasting at the hands of Pakistan in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final in England, where both their frontline spinners Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja failed to create an impact on unresponsive wickets, that the team management decided to fall back on these two wrist spinners with varied styles.

Ravi Shastri, who replaced Anil Kumble as the head coach under controversial circumstances for his second term, hatched the plan with the then skipper Virat Kohli - with a buy-in from the elder statesman Mahendra Singh Dhoni - to use Kul-Cha as the fulcrum of their spin attack. They reaped rich for the next two years with Yadav emerging as a hot property in Indian cricket and riding high on confidence after a five-wicket Test debut against Australia at Dharamsala.

In the two-year period between the ICC Champions Trophy and the 50-overs World Cup in 2019, Yadav (87 wickets at 21.74) and Chahal (66 at 25.68) were the top two wicket-takers in ODI cricket. They featured in tandem in each of India’s first six matches at the 50-overs World Cup, but the sixth game against England suddenly exposed doubts about them.

The pitch at Edgbaston was flat and one of the square boundaries was significantly shorter than the other which resulted in England’s in-form top order taking full toll of Yadav and Chahal, who took just the one wicket between them while going for 160 in their 20 overs. That was the last time India picked both Yadav and Chahal together in an ODI XI till the last Sri Lanka tour - with their form suddenly dipping as they found themselves demoted on the contracts list.

However, the inability of the finger spinners (read: recalled Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja) in recent times to provide India with breakthroughs - be it the T20 World Cup in the UAE or the ODI series against South Africa which they lost 3-0 - led to a call to rejig the spin attack. The series against South Africa was not flattering at all for the reputation of Ashwin where the senior off spinner failed to get breakthroughs at critical juncture while Tabraiz Shamsi, a quality Chinaman bowler, throttled the Indian batsmen time and again in tandem with Aiden Markram and Keshav Maharaj.

This must have brought a change of heart among the selectors to bring back Kul-Cha together, though they will be very much on trial - with even Chahal no longer an automatic selection he once was.

Looking back on the struggle that Kuldeep had to endure during this period in the wilderness, his longtime coach Kapil Pandey felt he got a raw deal. ‘‘At both national level and IPL, he spent days together on the benches and began to lose confidence. While he lost his place in the Indian team, Kuldeep helped KKR finish with a tie against Delhi Capitals by dismissing Rishabh Pant but still, he hardly got matches to get his mojo back. The knee injury sustained during the second half of IPL in 2021 only worsensed his mental state,’’ a vocal Pandey told Gulf News from Kanpur.

How did, then, Kuldeep’s road to recovery begin? ‘‘The BCCI had sent him to National Cricket Academy (NCA) for the rehab, after which he has started working really hard at my academy. Once he got used to the workload, Kuldeep started bowling long spells and we summoned a number of local left hand batters against him so that he can work on the line of his googly as well as his stock balls. A great deal of emphasis was given to ensure that he pitches in the right areas and even if he goes for a few runs, I have repeatedly advised him not to get bogged down - for he is a bowler who can change the course of a match in no time.’’

The trial for Kul-Cha begins with the first ODI against Kieron Pollard’s men on February 6 in Ahmedabad!