The famous duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzi Chahal often called KulCha terrorised the batters when MS Dhoni was the wicketkeeper for India. However, when MS Dhoni announced his retirement the duo could not contain the wrath of the batters and was ultimately thrown out of the Indian set-up from ODIs.
Between 2017-2019 Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzi Chahal played 34 matches together as a spinning duo. Out of these 34 matches, India won 24 which makes the winning percentage of the Indian team over 70% in the ODIs during those matches. Kuldeep Yadav took 65 wickets in these matches while Yuzi Chahal picked 53 wickets. Together the KulCha duo accounted for 118 wickets in just 34 matches.
They were one of the biggest reasons that India dominated between 2017-2019 at home. Both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzi Chahal had economies that hovered around 5 runs per over. The KulCha duo was at their peak before MS Dhoni announced his retirement and they suddenly lacked that guidance which had been of the reasons for their success.
Also, Kuldeep Yadav became too predictable as he used to bowl too slow which gave batters the time to counterattack him. Soon, the Indian team announced that only one of the KulCha duo will play in the ODIs for India. And since Kuldeep Yadav was going for runs he was shown the outside door and Yuzi Chahal became the soul prime spinning option for India with Ravindra Jadeja as his new partner in the middle overs.
However, even after making these huge changes, India has failed to win an ICC trophy since then and Kuldeep Yadav has finally been brought back into the Indian team set-up. He had a great series against South Africa recently in 2022 and is currently tearing apart the Bangladeshi batting line-up in the Tests.
Meanwhile, Yuzi Chahal is obviously going to be India’s first-choice spinner in the ODIs. If Kuldeep Yadav continues to impress with his performances in the upcoming few series we can expect him to form that old partnership with Yuzi Chahal in the middle of the World Cup 2023. The Indian team will be tempted to play Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal (KulCha) duo in the CWC cause the tournament is going to be played in India where the ball spins a lot in the middle overs.
