Dinesh Karthik has commented on the decline of the Indian cricket team's famous spin duo, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Kuldeep and Chahal, popularly known as 'KulCha' together, were India's first preferred spinners after the 2017 Champions Trophy tournament.
They contributed heavily to India's limited-overs success for a couple of years. But the spin duo saw a dip in their form after the 2019 World Cup, and the pair was also broken as Kuldeep soon got dropped from the side.
Even Chahal found it difficult to keep his place in the side, and he was ignored by the T20 World Cup 2021 squad. Currently, the leggie is part of the ODI squad against South Africa.
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Karthik, while speaking on Cricbuzz, agreed that former India captain MS Dhoni had a role in the success of Kuldeep and Chahal. He used to guide them from behind and it really helped the spin duo to tackle the opponents.
“100 percent. I think that the advent of their bowling has dipped because somebody like MS Dhoni is not there, for sure,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“Because I've seen how much he helped them. They don't need help when the going gets good or they're bowling and getting beaten, or when they don't know which way the bowl will turn. But when somebody hits a slog-sweep or just plays the reverse-sweep, then you have the wise words of wisdom coming from a man who has so much experience and they love him so much. They worth the weight (of Dhoni's words) in gold. They completely trust him," he added.
Karthik, who has shared the dressing room with both the spinners, also said that they used to listen to Dhoni more even though Virat Kohli was the captain. The spin-duo used to trust Dhoni's words a lot.
“Virat Kohli could've been the captain in many of those matches, but who were they listening to? If I'm honest, definitely MS Dhoni. What field to set, what line to bowl, what must the batsman be thinking.. these are the three questions that keep revolving in their minds. For all three questions, the man to give the best answer is without doubt the keeper, which happens to be MS Dhoni. And he really guided them well,” he said.
“I'm telling you. You take a look at how well the spinners have done in CSK. There must be a reason, right? The same Jadeja, when he bowls in international cricket, struggles at various times in white-ball cricket but when he goes back to CSK, he is used in such a way that it gets the best out of the bowler. Mitchell Santner is done well for CSK, Imran Tahir.. he was a match-winner for them.”
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
