5 reasons why the Indian ‘KulCha’ will be too hot to handle for English batsmen

After devouring a lacklustre Australian team, England were eager to taste the Indian curry. Jasprit Bumrah’s absence due to injury took the zing out of the Indian bowling attack but the English batsmen were up against quality spin, India’s key strength. The Indian ‘KulCha’ had made its mark against South Africa and were determined to upset English stomachs.

No, kulcha here doesn’t mean the Indian bread but the deadly wrist spin combination of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Read ahead to know why the English batsman are likely to have a tough time against India’s wrist spinners.

---

1 – Lack of Practice

England haven’t had much practice against wrist spinners. This is evident from their dismal performance in the first T20I game against India. In order to counter the threat posed by Chahal and in particular Kuldeep, the English team have resorted to seeking some help in the form of Merlyn - their state of the art spin bowling machine.

They use the bowling machine often before touring the sub-continent to get used to the spinners. Merlyn can generate spin but it certainly doesn’t have KulCha’s bag of tricks.

2 – Lack of Time

It takes time to get used to a wrist spinner. Limited overs cricket, especially T20 is a race against time. Dot balls are gold, sometimes they even weigh more than a wicket. By the time batsmen get used to KulCha, a considerable number of balls are consumed and time has passed by. Batsmen have to make up for the lost time soon, and in doing so, they start taking risks.

This is where India’s spin duo thrives. Having given a green signal by Captain Virat, KulCha don’t shy away from flighting the ball and leaking runs as they are going for wickets. A bad ball doesn’t deter their confidence, nor does the captain set defensive fields immediately. Sometimes, the field is set for every ball and not for the over!

3 – Difficulty in Picking

Wrist spinners usually are difficult to pick. Chinamen are even more challenging. Kuldeep Yadav has bamboozled batsmen with his variations. And most of the time, the batsmen have failed to pick him out of the hand. Kuldeep tosses it up, batsmen charge down the ground, miss the ball as it goes the other way, and Dhoni completes an easy stumping. This has been happening quite often.

Both Chahal and Kuldeep have all the necessary variations. They can spin it both ways. If the English batsmen cannot pick them from the hand, they will have less reaction time as they will have to wait for the ball to pitch and see where it turns, which isn’t much productive.

4 – Turn and Bounce

Compared to finger spinners, wrist spinners get more purchase off the pitch. KulCha have been able to extract both turn and bounce across various conditions internationally as well as in the Indian subcontinent.

Both of them have a slightly high-arm action, this again helps in getting more bounce, irrespective of the surface. Traditionally, wrist spinners haven’t relied much on the pitch for turn, their action causes more revolutions on the ball and hence it turns despite the nature of the pitch.

In spinning conditions, wrist spinners can be lethal.

5 – Match Situation

Kuldeep and Chahal have been used wisely by Kohli in the past. While Chahal is used in the powerplays, Kuldeep usually comes in a bit later. A bulk of their bowling happens in the middle overs, both in T20s and in One-day Internationals.

Whether batsmen are setting a target or chasing, this middle period is where they are not quite sure about their approach. They are wary of accelerating soon or getting more defensive than required.

Their approach is not clear because of the match situation and the wrist-spin duo use the batsmen's confusion to their advantage. And then there’s the legendary MS Dhoni who keeps guiding them with his wisdom from behind the stumps.