India vs West Indies 2018: 4 Indian players who can consolidate their place in the team during ODI series

#3. Kuldeep Yadav

Kuldeep Yadav - The "X-factor" for Team India

Wrist spin is a captivating art and Kuldeep Yadav has mastered it. Kuldeep relies on flight, dip and pace variation and has been successful in bamboozling the batsmen with his googlies. He is India’s mystery left arm wrist-spinner.

Kuldeep had a successful Asia Cup when he was the joint highest wicket-taker with 10 wickets. Even in the two Test matches against the West Indies, Kuldeep took 10 wickets. In the Test series, the West Indies batsmen were all at sea against him as they found him difficult to read.

In 29 one-day matches, Kuldeep has taken 58 wickets at an average of 2 wickets for every match which is a good strike rate. But the highlight is his economy rate which is 4.65. For a wrist-spinner, his economy rate is exceptional as wrist-spinners tend to be expensive.

With the West Indies team’s known traditional weakness against spin, Kuldeep Yadav is expected to improve his wickets tally in the one-day series. Kohli has a lot of confidence in his wicket-taking abilities. For Kohli, Kuldeep is an effective wicket-taking option in the middle overs and he is India’s “X-factor”.

Wrist spinners, when they land the ball in the right areas, are unplayable. In contrast, if they fail to do so, they will travel the distance. But Kuldeep has shown in his short career that he has the guts to absorb the pastings from the batsmen in his bargain to trade for their wickets.

Kuldeep should be looking forward to bowl to the fragile looking West Indies batting line-up.