Former Indian batsman and commentator Gautam Gambhir is once again in the circle of critics due to his controversial statement. Gambhir gave the credit for India’s victory in the India vs. Pakistan match of the Asia Cup to Kuldeep Yadav and said that he was the more deserving candidate for the player of the match trophy than Virat Kohli because Kuldeep Yadav took 5 wickets against an Asian team which are as good as India in playing spin.
Let us tell you that in this match, where Virat Kohli scored the 47th century of his ODI career and made the record of scoring the fastest 13,000 runs, at the same time, KL Rahul also returned after injury and played a brilliant century. In bowling, where only 9 batsmen from Pakistan batted, Kuldeep Yadav made 5 Pakistani batters victims of his spin.
Gautam Gambhir believes that even though Virat Kohli has played a brilliant innings, against a team like Pakistan, a spinner taking 5 out of 8 wickets completely changes the match.
“For me, it’s Kuldeep Yadav. Can’t look beyond him. I know Virat got a hundred. KL (Rahul) got a hundred. Rohit (Sharma), Shubman Gill got fifties but on a wicket like this where it was seaming swinging, if someone get five wickets in 8 overs, especially against Pakistan batters who play spin really well, is a game-changing moment. I can understand if it was Australia, South Africa or New Zealand because they don’t play spin that well,” Gautam Gambhir stated.
“Kuldeep Yadav beat batters in the air and he beat batters off the wicket as well” – Gautam Gambhir
While talking to Star Sports, Gambhir was very impressed with the bowling of Kuldeep Yadav. He added other words in praise of Kuldeep and said that it is very good for the Indian team before the upcoming World Cup, where there are two main bowlers on one side. The bowling has been strengthened further with Kuldeep Yadav.
“This just shows the quality of the bowler. He beat batters in the air and he beat batters off the wicket as well. Going into the World Cup, that is great for Indian cricket because now you have two attacking pacers upfront and Kuldeep… Three bowlers who can take wickets at any stage of the game,” said Gautam Gambhir.
While bowling, Kuldeep Yadav gave cheaply 25 runs in 8 overs and took 5 important Pakistani wickets and never allowed Pakistan to gain a foothold in this match. Before getting trapped in the spin of Kuldeep Yadav, the Pakistani team was looking helpless even in front of the Indian fast bowlers, among the Indian seamers, Jasprit Bumrah to Imam-ul-Haq and Hardik Pandya to captain Babar Azam showed the way to pavilion.