Kuldeep Yadav left his spin partner Yuzvendra Chahal behind to become the fastest Indian to 50 T20I wickets. Yadav achieved the milestone in his 30th T20I game with the wickets of West Indies’ Johnson Charles followed by in-form wicketkeeper-batter Nicholas Pooran and opener Brandon King in the same over of the third T20I at Providence Stadium, Guyana.
While Kuldeep breached the mark in the 30th T20I, Chahal held the previous record for India in the format Chahal took his 50th T20I wicket from the 34th game. He did it against Bangladesh in November 2019.
Overall, Kuldeep is the sixth-fastest to 50 T20I wickets. He surpassed bowlers like South Africa's Imran Tahir and Rashid Khan on the list. The list is topped by Botswana's Dhruvkumar Maisuria who took just 22 games to achieve the milestone.
Among Test-playing nations, Kuldeep is the third-fastest to 50 T20I wickets. Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis (26) is on top followed by Ireland's Mark Adair (28). He took 628 balls to get to 50 T20I wickets, the fourth-fastest among Test-playing nations. The list is topped by Mendis (600 balls), Adair (620 balls), and South Africa's Lungi Ngidi (624 balls).
In the must-win encounter, Kuldeep replaced Ravi Bishnoi in the side. In his second over, Kuldeep trapped Charles in front of the stumps. In his third over, Pooran hit Kuldeep for a six and a four. In his last over, Yadav got his revenge by getting Pooran stumped. Later in the over, King got out caught and bowled and missed his half-century.
Despite Kuldeep's three-fer, skipper Rovman Powell's unbeaten 19-ball 40 helped West Indies post 159/5 after opting to bat first on a spin-friendly wicket. Powell hit three sixes and one four in his 19-ball 40.
Interestingly, Kuldeep made his T20I debut against West Indies in 2017. His first T20I wicket in 2017 was hard-hitting West Indies opener Chris Gayle who got stumped by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
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