IND vs SL, 1st ODI: Kul-Cha pair returns in form, Kuldeep Yadav & Yuzvendra Chahal pick two wickets each – Kuldeep Yadav & Yuzvendra Chahal who are playing together for India after 749 days announced their comeback in form by picking two wickets each in the first ODI against Sri Lanka here at the R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Sunday. Yuzvendra Chahal picked two wickets in 10 overs giving away 52 runs while Kuldeep also claimed two wickets in one over and gave 48 runs in nine overs.
Sri Lanka had won the toss and opted to bat first against India in the first ODI. Indian bowlers’ disciplined bowling kept the host under pressure throughout the first innings.
IND vs SL, 1st ODI: Kul-Cha pair returns, Kuldeep Yadav & Yuzvendra Chahal play for Team India together after 749 days
Under the leadership of Shikhar Dhawan, India’s wrist-spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav & Yuzvendra Chahal, also known as Kul-Cha, has made comeback in international cricket after 749 days. This is the first time that both are featuring in India’s playing XI since the group stage match against England in the 2019 World Cup.
Toss & Team News from Colombo:
Sri Lanka have won the toss & elected to bat against #TeamIndia in the first #SLvIND ODI.
Follow the match 👉 https://t.co/rf0sHqdzSK
Here’s India’s Playing XI 👇 pic.twitter.com/eYNANlZ9ij
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 18, 2021
Chahal took the wicket on the very first ball of his spell in the first ODI, he sent back Avishka Fernando on 32 in the 10th over.
IND vs SL: In the 2019 World Cup, India lost to England in the group stage match. Kuldeep and Chahal were thrashed by the English batters. Kuldeep gave 72 runs in 10 overs taking just one wicket while Yuzvendra Chahal gave 88 runs in his quota of 10 overs. The leggy failed to take a single wicket in the game. Team India lost the game by 31 runs and Kul-Cha never played together till the first ODI of India’s tour of Sri Lanka.
IND vs SL: Except for the one match mention above both have an excellent record playing with each other. They have played 34 ODIs together in which Kuldeep picked 65 wickets at an economy of 4.94 and strike rate of 27.60. While Chahal gathered 53 wickets at an economy of 5.24 and strike rate of 33.53. When these two are playing together India’s win percentage is above 70 having won 24 matches and lost 9.
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This is what the 2⃣ teams are playing for! 👍 👍#SLvIND #TeamIndia
Follow the match 👉 https://t.co/rf0sHqdzSK pic.twitter.com/fK2Me33J9z
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 18, 2021
IND vs SL: There were many reasons for Kul-Cha to not feature together in international cricket. First was the decline in their form. Then as Hardik Pandya was not bowling India had to play a spin bowling all-rounder and thus one of Chahal or Kuldeep had to seat out. Ravindra Jadeja was also in great form which made it tough for Kul-Cha to make comeback. Now it will be interesting to see how they perform together after more than two years gap.