Stats: Kuldeep Yadav completes 50 wickets in ODI cricket

Kuldeep Yadav has turned India’s fortunes in the limited-overs cricket ever since his debut by becoming the strike bowler for the team in the middle overs. Every time India are in a need of breakthrough or a partnership just start to threaten, the captain turns up to Kuldeep who has the ability to even trouble the set batsmen with his variations. The game against Hong Kong is another instance where Kuldeep proved his importance in the team.

While the new ball bowlers failed to take wickets and contain the runs, the Hong Kong openers found difficulty while facing the left-arm spinner. Kuldeep couldn’t take wickets straight away unlike the previous games but did build up pressure on the batsmen. Eventually, he was successful in breaking the partnership when the opposition skipper Anshuman Rath hit one straight into the hands of Indian skipper Rohit Sharma.

In his final over, Kuldeep got Scott McKechnie stumped with which he completed 50 wickets in ODI cricket. He got there in his 24th match thus becoming the joint 3rd fastest and the 2nd fastest among Indians after Ajit Agarkar who took 23 games. Ajantha Mendis is the quickest to the feat having got there in just 19 matches. He is the only spinner other than Kuldeep to complete 50 ODI wickets in less than 25 matches.

Among the left-arm bowlers, Kuldeep stands at the second position behind New Zealand pacer Mitchell McClenaghan who completed this milestone in only 23 matches. In terms of innings, the chinaman stands second only behind Mendis.

His ODI debut was in West Indies in 2017; the game was washed out after 39.2 overs of India’s batting innings. Later in December against Sri Lanka, Kuldeep didn’t get a chance to bowl when India were defending their total of 112 on a seaming track. As a result, the chinaman bowled only 22 innings in the 24 matches he has played thus far.

Fastest players to complete 50 wickets in ODI cricket:

(Stats as on September 18, 2018)

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