Kuldeep Yadav may be the 3rd-choice Indian spinner in Tests after R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja but whenever he gets a chance, the 29-year-old makes sure to give it his best.
The chinaman from UP rattled England in the 1st innings of the 5th Test by picking up his fourth 5-wicket-haul in Test cricket. The first 4 English batters to fall were all bamboozled by Kuldeep, that after the visitors had a solid 64-run opening stand.
Interestingly, he is now the fastest Indian and the quickest among spinners in the last 100 years to take 50 Test wickets in terms of balls bowled. He took 1871 deliveries while Axar Patel, who is next on the list, took 2205 balls.
The Chinaman fancies playing in Dharamsala, the ground where he also made his Test debut back in 2017. After a 4-wicket-haul in Dharamsala against Australia in that Test, Kuldeep ended with 5 wickets at the HPCA stadium on Thursday.
England started the post-lunch session at 100 for two but lost six wickets for just 94 runs as Indian spinners, led by Kuldeep (5/72), ran through their batting unit.
Opener Zak Crawley (79, 108 balls) offered lone resistance for England.
There were two middling partnerships -– 37 between Crawley and Joe Root (26) for the third wicket and 38 between Root and 100-Test-man Jonny Bairstow (29) for the fourth wicket –- but they were not sufficient for the visitors.