"He was playing the ball in Guyana and the ball was in Florida" - Aakash Chopra on Kuldeep Yadav's dismissal of Rovman Powell in 4th IND-WI T20I
Aakash Chopra has pointed out that Kuldeep Yadav bamboozled Rovman Powell to dismiss him in the fourth T20I between India and the West Indies.
Kuldeep registered figures of 2/26 in four overs as the Men in Blue restricted the Windies to 178/8 in Lauderhill, Florida, on Saturday, August 12. Yashasvi Jaiswal (84* off 51) and Shubman Gill (77 off 47) then added 165 runs for the opening wicket to help Hardik Pandya and Co. register a comprehensive nine-wicket win and draw level in the five-match series.
While reviewing the game on JioCinema, Chopra heaped praise on Kuldeep for bowling an excellent spell and especially his dismissal of Powell. He said:
"The ball to Rovman Powell deceived him. He (Kuldeep) bowled a googly, he got trapped and played the wrong line. He was playing the ball in Guyana and the ball was in Florida, and Shubman Gill was standing in the slips, who doesn't do anything wrong on an Ahmedabad-like pitch."
The former Indian opener highlighted that batters are unable to read the bowlers from the hand in the T20 era. He elaborated:
"T20 cricket has given a lot of things but has probably taken away one thing from the batters. He is from the West Indies, you take it with a little pinch of salt in any case, but the batters rarely pick the ball from the hand. That is why you see a lot of batters getting flummoxed by the googly."
Chopra pointed out that a left-arm wrist-spinner is also a rare commodity and batters don't get to practice much against them. He added that batters are therefore unable to figure out even a slight variation from such bowlers.
"It looks like you are playing with Nicholas Pooran's mind" - Aakash Chopra on Kuldeep Yadav's dismissal of wicketkeeper-batter
Aakash Chopra believes Nicholas Pooran's ego cost him his wicket against Kuldeep Yadav. He explained:
"It looks like you are playing with Nicholas Pooran's mind, that you have held back Kuldeep Yadav for him. It is actually a broadcast message, everyone knows it that Kuldeep will be brought once he comes, a fielder will be placed in the deep and what will you do?"
The cricketer-turned-commentator feels the destructive batter could have played the left-arm wrist-spinner cautiously and attacked the other bowlers. He stated:
"He has the option of either playing a big shot or rotating the strike against him and hitting someone else. But Nicholas Pooran has just one way of playing. He bats in the fifth gear. He got out stumped in the last match. He connected in this match, so he was caught in the deep."
Chopra is sure that Kuldeep will be brought into the attack as soon as Pooran comes to the crease in the final T20I as well. He is interested to see the former West Indies skipper's approach against his nemesis.