India’s wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav came as a surprise to the English batsmen as he dismantled their batting line-up, ending with figures of 5/24 in the first T20 match of the three-match series on July 3. Team India won the match by 8 wickets.
English batsmen found it hard to read Kuldeep’s unconventional wrist-spin and despite the brilliant 50-run opening start, they could only manage 159 for 8 in their quota of 20 overs. Yadav picked up wickets of batsmen like Jos Buttler, Alex Hales (8), Eoin Morgan (7), Jonny Bairstow (0) and Joe Root (0).
During the match, Kuldeep became the first left-arm wrist-spinner to take a five-fer in T20I.
England’s vice-captain Buttler, who top-scored with 69 runs off 46 balls, however, is not panicking ahead of the second T20I after the Old Trafford collapse that saw them lose the game by eight wickets. He said,
“Left-arm wrist-spinners seem quite hard to come by. One thing we can do is with Merlyn, to replicate the angle. It’s a very good machine to get used to that. But it was the first time some guys have faced Kuldeep and it may take one or two games, plus video.”
Merlyn Bowling Machine
According to reports, England did not use Merlyn ahead of their series against India. The technology was first introduced in 2005 in order to replicate the bowling style of Australia’s Shane Warne before that summer’s Ashes and its creator, Henry Pryor, claimed it can “bowl any ball known to man”.
We are confident, we will stick to what has served us well, stay true to ourselves and come back hard at them in the next game,” Buttler said
The Indian team is now leading the three-match series 1-0.
