JOIN US Indian team bowling coach Bharat Arun played down the mediocre performance of wrist-spin duo Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, terming their meltdown in the Mumbai match against New Zealand as a one-off occurrence.
Chahal and Kuldeep, who have featured regularly on the Indian side since the limited-overs series in Sri Lanka, went for plenty as India suffered a rare defeat.
“See in all fairness in the last nine games that India has won (nine out of 10 before the New Zealand series), these two wrist spinners have done their job and they have time and again taken wickets,” said Arun.
“Sometimes it does happen that you don’t get the desired results, you have plans in place but it doesn’t work out. If you look at the overall percentages, we are happy with the way they (Chahal and Kuldeep) have shaped up, so one odd match shouldn’t trouble us. We would like to take a good look at them before we could come up with a combination for the World Cup. So, so far they have shaped exceptionally well,” he explained.
Arun said his spinners had plans in place for the Kiwi batsmen who used the sweep shot to good effect. “Yes we do (have plans). We have taken a good look at the videos, how they played the sweeps and things like this. Definitely, the plans would change for these batsmen.”
The last time India were left to do the catching-up job was again against New Zealand in 2016 following which they have beaten England, West Indies (in West Indies), Sri Lanka (in Sri Lanka) and Australia with a fair degree of comfort. While acknowledging the rare situation that they find themselves in, Arun felt it was challenging at the same time.