Kuldeep Yadav achieves milestone, equals 68-year-old record, becomes 2nd left-arm wrist spinner to…

In the ongoing second Test against West Indies, Kuldeep Yadav took five wickets for India in the first innings. Kuldeep scored 26.5 in the first innings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, dismissing five West Indies batsmen for 82 runs. The Kanpur-based cricketer’s five-wicket haul allowed him to match former England spinner Johnny Wardle’s record of most five-wicket hauls by a left-arm wrist spinner in Tests.

Wardle played 28 Tests and was involved in five five-wicket hauls during his nine-year international career. Kuldeep has five five-wicket hauls in 15 Test matches.

South Africa’s Paul Adams had four five-wicket hauls in 45 Tests.

Wardle took his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests in the red-ball match between England and South Africa in Durban from 25 to 30 January 1957. He bowled 20.2 overs in the first innings and dismissed 5 opposition batsmen for 61 runs.

Kuldeep started knocking on the door by sacking Alick Athanaze on Saturday evening. Athanaze was caught by Ravindra Jadeja on the first ball of the 33rd over after scoring 41 runs from 84 balls.

On Sunday morning, he dismissed Shai Hope, who scored 36 off 57 balls. The right-hander was clean bowled by his former Delhi Capitals teammate.

Kuldeep’s third wicket was Tevin Imlach. The West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman was left stranded in front of the wickets. Justin Greaves (17 runs from 20 balls) was similarly dismissed by Kuldeep in the second ball of the 56th over.

The left-arm wrist spinner completed his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests and his second Test five-wicket haul against the West Indies by dismissing Jayden Seales on the fifth ball of the 82nd over.

Kuldeep took a total of 69 wickets against the West Indies in international cricket. He has dismissed 19 Caribbean batsmen in four Tests, 33 in 19 ODIs and 17 in nine T20Is. Only Kapil Dev (132), Anil Kumble (115), Ravichandran Ashwin (103), Harbhajan Singh (91), Ravindra Jadeja (85) and Mohammed Shami (75) are ahead of him in the list of Indian bowlers with the most wickets in international cricket against Men in Maroon.