Kuldeep Yadav remains in India’s scheme of things: Sairaj Bahutule

Colombo: Defending the struggling Kuldeep Yadav, India's spin bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule on Friday asserted that the left-arm wrist spinner is in the team management's "scheme of things" ahead of the second Test, and said one mediocre outing will not define the bowler.

Kuldeep could only pick one wicket while bowling 25 overs across two innings in the first Test, whereas left-arm spinner Manav Suthar and Ravindra Jadeja shared 14 wickets among them.

"He's been bowling extremely well. It's just the situation which arose in Galle, he had to play a different role. For me, he has always been a match-winner and he definitely is in the scheme of things," Bahutule told the media here at the Sinhalese Sports Club.


"All the spinners are struggling with the soft ball. But for finger spinners (left-arm or off-spinners), it becomes easier. For a leg-spinner, it is that much harder because of the softness of the ball, the seam just goes down.

"Finger spinners, you can manipulate the fingers and bowl with the speeds you want to bowl. It is a tough proposition for a (wrist) spinner.

"So, I don't think one game decides on the way he is performing and the way he is approaching. So, that's all he had to adapt to and he tried his best to adapt to that role," he explained.

The conditions at Galle and the Kookaburra balls, that go soft after the initial lacquer disappears, Bahutule said, mandated the adaptation of a different trajectory for Kuldeep.

"We had to see how the trajectory or the speeds work in every session. As the days went by and as there was a demand for different types of speeds and different types of trajectories, he definitely was making an effort to bowl that.

"I think he was playing his role. So, he was operating as a wrist spinner in a way where obviously the wicket got slower and slower each day. But I'm sure he was bowling the way he normally bowls," he said.

'Suthar is a banker for us'

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Left-arm spinner Suthar continued his upwardly mobile journey, taking a 10-wicket match haul at Galle.

A massively impressed Bahutule said the young spinner has quickly become a "banker" for the team.

"Since he has bowled a lot in domestic cricket, he understands his bowling well. And what we try to do is see how we can get that awareness of bowling in different conditions, different pitches, different batters, left-hand, right-hand.

"What would be the most effective way to bowl? What will be the ideal fields? Things like that are continuously happening so that he becomes effective. He is very accurate, and so, his trajectories are just getting better.

"The revs are good and he is somebody who is like a banker for us. You know, consistently being in the lines which we want him to be and that's how he is also evolving," said Bahutule.