Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have wreaked havoc with their wrist spin in the last year and a half. Both have done amazingly well in the limited overs format for India and Kuldeep Yadav has become a potent force in Test cricket as well.

During the ongoing India and Australia ODI series Kuldeep Yadav has managed to pick wickets in the middle overs and while Chahal only played one ODI in Mohali, the duo has gained a reputation of troubling the best of the batsmen in the world in limited overs.

Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden revealed the secrets behind the success of Kuldeep and in an interview with PTI, mentioned that Kuldeep shares an incredible ability that he had seen in the greatest leg-spinner ever to play the game, Shane Warne.

He said, "Leg spinners provide option and variety. In particular, if you look at Kuldeep, his strength is not how far he turns the ball but his strength is how the ball just like Shane Warne's deliveries arrives at the batsman. It has a distinct curve in the air."

Speaking about Chahal, Hayden said that he can be negotiated easily, "Chahal is a different bowler. He is very stump-to-stump. He bowls much flatter and straighter. He doesn't get the drift. If I was a player, I would prefer facing Chahal because he doesn't get the drift."

Hayden blamed the defensive bowling by finger spinners causing them to go out of fashion in limited overs cricket and said, “What has happened is that off-spinners have learned the art to contain batsmen, which had kept them in play for a certain period of time. But now, the players have got used to the flatter trajectory of the off-spinners. Off-spinners have lost the art of being able to get the pace to drop (vary pace).”

He gave an example of Nathan Lyon’s bowling in Nagpur ODI, saying, “During his second spell, the speed was like 80-82 kmph compared to 90-92 kmph in the first spell. So that's a clear drop of 10kmph. All of a sudden, he looked unplayable. They have this courage issue where they don't want to give away runs. In Tests, they become wicket-takers compared to being run-savers. That's the difference."

(PTI inputs)