Indian skipper Virat Kohli lavished praise on Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal after the Indian team registered an emphatic victory over the Australians in the second One-Day International match held at the iconic Eden Garden ground in Kolkata on September 21. Kuldeep and Chahal have taken ten wickets between themselves in the first two matches of the series. Virat Kohli & Co thrashed Australians by 50 runs in the 2nd ODI. All credit for this victory goes to Kuldeep Yadav who on Thursday became the third Indian bowler to claim the hat-trick in ODI cricket. Before Kuldeep, former all-rounder Kapil Dev and medium pacer Chetan Sharma had achieved this feat in the format.
Kuldeep Yadav entered into the record books after he picked up three crucial wickets in the 32nd over of the Australian innings.
Reacting on Kuldeep’s hat-trick, skipper Virat Kohli said that the success of the two wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal has kept the competition going for slots in the Indian team and augurs well in the run-up to the World Cup in 2019.
During the post-match presentation, Kohli said,
The team now had a lot of options, and all bases were covered. They are outstanding, they are two young guys bowling with a lot of heart, getting us those breakthroughs against a top quality side… I think it speaks volumes about their character.
Kuldeep, who finished with figures of 3/54, first picked up Matthew Wade who tried to cut with an angled bat but the ball took the inside edge and smashed into the stumps. Next, he picked up Ashton Agar who was given LBW by the on-field umpire.
The third wicket he picked up was of Pat Cummins, who tried to defend Kuldeep’s googly but the ball took the outside edge and settled nicely in MS Dhoni’s gloves.
Kohli added,
Looking at the World Cup in a couple of years time, that really augurs well for us, how the team is shaping up. It’s a good balance of bowling and batting.
Kohli was ecstatic about the options in the all-rounder slots.
We have not only Hardik (Pandya) as an all-rounder, now we have a couple of spinning allrounders as well in (Ravindra) Jadeja and Axar (Patel). So we have a lot of options, plus we have all our bases covered at the moment.
The World Cup is slated to be hosted in England and Wales from May 30 to July 15, 2019.
