In a thrilling display of cricketing prowess, the Indian team roared back into contention by levelling the series against the West Indies. With an astounding batting display, India showcased their dominance on the field. The instrumental factors behind this resurgence were the remarkable form of Kuldeep Yadav and the dynamic vigor brought by the youthful opening partnership.

Initiating with a commanding run rate of over 9 in the powerplay, West Indies encountered a setback at 123/7 due to interventions by Arshdeep and Kuldeep. Yet, Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope’s strategic play propelled them to a competitive 178. Meanwhile, India’s opening tandem, featuring Jaiswal and Gill, achieved a milestone by matching a record-equaling T20I partnership. While Jaiswal kicked off aggressively, Gill chose a patient approach and initially stepped back. He initiated his counterattack once Jaiswal had laid a foundation for India’s chase.

In this article, let’s delve more extensively into their opening partnership and also conduct a detailed pitch map analysis of Kuldeep’s landing zones.

Kuldeep’s Outstanding form

In this series, while the average economy rate of Indian bowlers has tallied at 8.23, Kuldeep Yadav has notably distinguished himself with an economy rate of merely 6.17—the most commendable among all bowlers in the series. While today’s pitch was definitely a good surface for the batter, it didn’t stop Kuldeep from playing some mind games with his subtle variations.

Also read: Match Analysis: Kuldeep Yadav’s Web of Mastery and SKY’s Brilliance Lead India to a Victory Over the West Indies – Cricket Winner

As seen in the pitch map, Kuldeep majorly bowled to the left-handed batters and most of the time, he stuck to his stump-to-stump line and generally bowled fuller lengths. A couple of times when he had missed out on his radar, he was smashed to the boundary. But the best part of his spell was the delivery he had bowled to Nicholas Pooran, where he bravely flighted it just outside off stump and bowled a googly. Pooran had misjudged the googly and tried to go over covers, only to hit it straight down the throat of long off.

His setup to Powell was even better. A ball before the wicket, he delivered a ripping googly outside the off stump which just missed the outer part of the blade. He then followed it up with a googly on the leg stump which forced to Powell to play at, only for him to edge it to slip. While Shimron Hetmyer was generally comfortable against Kuldeep, the latter still kept things tight and ended with up with brilliant figures of 2/26 on a good batting track. With respect to his variations, he bowled 6 googlies which resulted in his 2 wickets and 5 runs, while his leg break generated 21 runs in 18 deliveries.

The Youthful Opening Duo

Shubman Gill rose to the occasion with a pivotal innings when it was needed most. His partnership with Jaiswal yielded a remarkable total of 165 runs, marking a record-equaling opening stand for India in T20Is. Here, we will be performing a type of shot analysis for both the players to see the kind of shots they played on an individual level.

From first glance, we can see that Gill has a pronounced variety in shots in comparison to Jaiswal. The latter also possessed some wonderful array of shots, but his most dominant trait was the front foot drive with close to 37 percent of his runs scored with this shot. But once he had settled, he tried a variety of shots ranging from a reverse sweep to a scoop, but his front foot slog garnered close to 17 percent of his runs.

Gill on the other hand took his time but once he had settled down, he boasted his extensive variety of shots with close to 22 percent of the runs scored in the front foot slog. Gill also didn’t over hit his drives and rather preferred the front foot push, scoring close to 15 percent of his runs with this shot. His pull shot is a sight to behold with close to 24 percent of his runs scored with this shot.

While we await the prospect of sustained performances from the Indian opening pair, this partnership stands as a testament to the skill set possessed by our emerging young talents.