England vs India: Graham Thorpe suggests the English batsmen to play Kuldeep Yadav with an open mind

Kuldeep Yadav, the Indian bowler, has been a tormenting factor for the English batsmen. In the first T20I at Old Trafford in Manchester, the chinaman bowler became the first left-armer to pick up a five-wicket-haul in T20Is. It ruffled the feathers of the home team and they brought forth Merlyn, a special bowling machine in order to counter the guile of the tweaker.

They were somewhat successful as Kuldeep went wicketless at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff in the second T20I. He didn’t play the deciding match at County Ground in Bristol. Kuldeep came back to play the opening encounter of the three-match ODI series at Trent Bridge in Nottingham and weaved his magic with a spell of 10-0-25-6. He currently has the best figures by a spinner in ODIs on English soil.

He also became the first left-arm spinner to notch a six-wicket haul in the 50-overs format. The venue is regarded as a bowlers graveyard, but the 23-year old manifested the importance of sticking to the basics in order to curb the opposition batsmen. Meanwhile, Graham Thorpe, the former English cricketer and England’s batting coach, believes that the team needs to play Kuldeep, abandoning any inhibition.

We’ve got to turn it around pretty quickly

“India are a very good measure of where we are at. The one thing about him (Kuldeep) playing is that you start to formulate plans. The more you face the trajectory, the flight, the speed of the ball, they’re the things you pick up on. You’ve also got to set up as a player against it: your method, your footwork, your position on the crease,” Thorpe was quoted as saying by The Times of India (TOI).

“You have to react quite quickly, especially in one-day cricket when you’re always looking for opportunities to score. He shut us down and you have to give him credit. It’s up to us and our players to keep an open mind, accept it’s happened, but we’ve got to turn it around pretty quickly as we are playing again on Saturday,” the veteran of 100 Tests and 82 ODIs added.

The second ODI will be played at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Stadium and the hosts have a task on their hands to make a comeback. The ODI rankings are also at stake as England will drop down to the second spot if they lose the match and the series. In that scenario, the Men in Blue, who are currently ranked second, will move to the top.

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