The twin sheikhs of tweak in India’s title defence

Throughout the recently concluded Test tour of England, the one popular refrain was: Where is Kuldeep?

In their collective wisdom, skipper Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir decided that Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist-spinner, had to be sacrificed at the altar of batting depth. There was a strong case for the 30-year-old starting the series at Headingley, which hosted the first of five Tests. But once the management group opted for Shardul Thakur because he provided an additional batting resource lower down the order, it was pretty much certain that Kuldeep would only ferry drinks.

Extraordinary collapses in the two innings of seven for 41 and six for 31 respectively merely solidified the resolve of the think-tank to stick to the batting depth philosophy.

It’s another matter that despite scoring more than 800 runs and boasting five centuries across the two innings, India failed to defend a target of 371, England racing to a commanding five-wicket victory on a flatbed that made even Jasprit Bumrah appear ordinary. Kuldeep’s ability to make things happen even on the most placid of tracks was sorely missed, but more than the bowling, India were obsessed with their batting.

An eventual scoreline of 2-2 and a shared series might suggest that the ends justified the means, but who’s to say that we wouldn’t have had a different, more exciting story to tell had the man from Kanpur been unleashed on the Englishmen, who don’t possess the reputation of being the most comfortable against wrist spin. Having been hailed as India’s No. 1 spinner overseas – indeed, everywhere – by then head coach Ravi Shastri after his five-wicket haul in the Sydney Test of January 2019, Kuldeep has only played seven Tests subsequently in six and a half years.

But there is no disputing his pre-eminence in white-ball cricket. In 113 One-Day Internationals, he boasts 181 wickets, tasting success every 5.1 overs; 40 Twenty20 Internationals have yielded 69 wickets at an economy of 6.77 and a strike-rate of 12.4 deliveries per wicket. These are exceptional numbers, especially given how batter-friendly the conditions and the rules have been in T20s, particularly, illustrating how crucial Kuldeep is to India’s plans in limited-overs play.

To have Kuldeep alone in his ranks is a massive plus for Suryakumar Yadav, who will lead India’s title defence at the T20 Asia Cup in the UAE next month. To also be able to call on the versatility of Varun Chakaravarthy is a terrific luxury.

Unlike Kuldeep, who made his India debut as a 22-year-old in March 2017, Varun was a month shy of his 30th birthday when he won his maiden India cap, in a T20I against Sri Lanka in July 2021. After playing six matches in three and a half months, including at the T20 World Cup in the UAE in October-November that same year, he was left out owing to lack of returns – his promise didn’t translate to more than two wickets in those six outings, and he went wicketless at the desert misadventure.

Jettisoned summarily, Varun went back to the drawing board, worked relentlessly on adding to his repertoire, came back rejuvenated with a bushel of wickets in the IPL across two seasons and earned a comeback after three years, last October. Since there, there has been no stopping the 33-year-old.

He has been a grand wicket-taker in T20s – in his last 12 matches, he has amassed 31 scalps – and was belatedly inducted into the squad for the 50-over Champions Trophy, also in the UAE, this February-March. That move, orchestrated jointly by captain Rohit Sharma, Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar, proved to be a masterstroke.

Despite playing just three of India’s five matches, Varun emerged as the team’s highest wicket-taker – and the second highest in the tournament, behind Kiwi Matt Henry – with nine sticks. His assortment of the leg-break and the googly, both delivered without too much telegramming, befuddled all-comers as he spearheaded a wonderful spin display from the Indians, for whom Varun’s wrist-spinning twin, Kuldeep, weighed in with seven wickets.

Control and penetration

It is to this duo that Suryakumar will look for control and penetration at the Asia Cup. While it is true that India are the defending champions of the tournament, following their one-sided decimation of Sri Lanka in the final in Colombo in September 2023, that event was a 50-over affair designed as the final competitive preparatory exercise for the 50-over World Cup in India. The last time the Asia Cup was played in the T20 format was in August-September 2022, just ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia. India failed to advance past the Super 4 stage, losing to both Pakistan and Sri Lanka – who contested the final – as their consolation win against Afghanistan counted for nothing. That tournament was also staged in the UAE; a return to the scene of their recent triumph, but also a venue where they haven’t had a lot of joy in T20s, should drive Kuldeep and Varun to reprise their Champions Trophy heroics, a must if India are to bury past disappointments in the desert sand.

Before the Asia Cup in 2022, India had suffered an embarrassing first-round elimination in the T20 World Cup in 2021. After just two matches, their campaign was in shambles. India lost to Pakistan in a World Cup game of any variety for the first time (by ten wickets) and then succumbed to New Zealand a week later; they still had a few games left but their challenge was effectively over as they hit a new low in the 20-over format.

It’s unlikely that the weight of history will hang heavily over the heads of Suryakumar and his colleagues. So much cricket is played these days that even last week is a distant memory. To expect today’s cricketers to recall depressing events of three and four years past is a little too much, given how proficient they have become at talking about the virtues of ‘staying in the present’. As such, it is the present – and a little bit of the future – that will be uppermost on their minds when they emplane for Dubai.

The present, of course, is the Asia Cup. The future is the T20 World Cup, to be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka in February-March. It doesn’t need reiteration that India are the defending champions, or that spin will have a big say at the World Cup. The first step towards fine-tuning preps for the mega event will be taken at the Asia Cup, and the rest of the world will watch with keen interest how India’s two wrist-spinning destroyers stack up.

The dynamics of the 20-over game are constantly evolving with bowlers having to dig deep and keep adding to their armoury to defeat the marauding intent of batters emboldened by small boundaries and immense power that allow them to overcome the occasional challenges of slow turners. Bowlers who have allowed the grass to grow under their feet have been found out and consigned to the outer, while those that have reinvented themselves and discovered ways and means of overcoming the huge odds stacked against them have found life a little easier. Wrist-spinners have increasingly started to hold their own, contrary to fears a few years back that the 20-over format would sound their death knell. Most teams have one quality wristie in their midst; India have two which, coupled with the nature of the pitches in the Emirates, should give them an edge even before a ball is bowled.

Kuldeep and Varun complement, rather than compete with, each other. They are at that stage of their respective careers where there isn’t any insecurity – at least as far as the white ball is concerned, in Kuldeep’s case – and each is comfortable in his own skin. Both understand the value of partnership bowling; sometimes, the pressure imposed by one brings the other wickets because that is the very nature of the sport. They have been around this set-up long enough to know that individual success is secondary to the team’s cause, but that doesn’t mean they will stop looking for wickets because that is their very job profile.

Unfathomable puzzle

While there is still an element of ‘mystery’ to Varun, Kuldeep is more unconventional than mysterious. Left-arm wrist-spin is still a novelty though international cricket is nearly 150 years old; left-arm wrist-spin delivered with the felicity that Kuldeep has mastered is an unfathomable puzzle to most batters, and more so in the game of 120 deliveries where there is no option of playing one bowler out. Kuldeep has showcased his nous in winkling batters out even when they adopt a defensive mien; when batters come at him more on a wing and a prayer, he can be lethal.

Varun is currently sitting fourth in the ICC rankings for T20I bowlers. If Kuldeep, the world No. 3 ODI bowler, comes in only at a modest No. 36 in the T20I charts, it’s entirely because he hasn’t played an international 20-over match since June last year, in the final of the World Cup.

Over the winter, when India defeated Bangladesh, South Africa and England, he was recovering from surgery for sports hernia and even though he is coming in cold, he bowled enough at nets in England to shake off any rust that might have accumulated after the IPL.

In Varun’s case, there was the Tamil Nadu Premier League that allowed him to build on the momentum he had generated with Kolkata Knight Riders at IPL 2025. Without picking up a bagful of wickets, he looked in good rhythm as his team, Dindigul Dragons, made it to the title round. The subsequent month and a half should have allowed him to work on his bowling and his fitness, which isn’t necessarily his greatest asset, understandable because of how late he forayed into competitive cricket.

T20 games are generally won the back of muscular batting, more than anything else; India have the batting firepower, but they also possess two sheikhs of tweak itching to make batters dance to their tune. It should make for fascinating viewing, at the very least.