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Babar Azam Left Puzzled When Kuldeep Yadav Bowled The Ball Of The World Cup 2019 - Watch

Aakash Saini

Kuldeep Yadav celebrating the downfall of Babar Azam [Source: @ICC/x]Kuldeep Yadav celebrating the downfall of Babar Azam [Source: @ICC/x]

Indian wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav made his international debut, and cemented his place in the national side during Virat Kohli’s reign as captain. A veteran of 106 ODIs and 40 T20I caps, the cricketer played a crucial role in India’s rampaging runners-up campaign at the 2023 World Cup, and during India’s victorious outing at the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies.

Born in Uttar Pradesh, Kuldeep Yadav turned 30 on Saturday, December 14. Celebrating his distinguished international career, here we take a look back at one of the finest deliveries he ever bowled for Team India.

When Kuldeep Yadav toppled Babar Azam

During India’s high-octane opening round match against arch-rivals Pakistan from the 2019 World Cup at Manchester, Kuldeep Yadav picked up a couple of key wickets to derail the ‘Men in Green’ run-chase. Sending down nine overs from his end, the left-arm spinner dismissed Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman in quick succession to tilt the tide back in India’s favor.

Kuldeep’s delivery to dismiss Babar went on to become one of the defining moments of the game, and easily one of the balls of the tournament. Tossing up, the ball gently drifted away across Babar before finding a way through the batter’s forward defense to shatter his stumps.

After knocking over Babar Azam for 48, Kuldeep Yadav had Fakhar Zaman top-edge one towards Yuzvendra Chahal to claim astonishing figures of 2-32 in a high-scoring game. Yadav’s spell kept Pakistan down to just 212-6 as Team India clinched an 89-run win (DLS method).

Overall, the 30-year-old cricketer has bagged 56 wickets in 13 Tests, and another 241 wickets in 146 white-ball international matches. He is currently working his way to make it to India’s squad for the impending ICC Champions Trophy 2025.