Asia Cup 2023: Kuldeep Yadav Becomes Quickest Indian Spinner to 150 Wickets in ODIs

Kuldeep Yadav produced another impressive show with the ball following his five-wicket haul against Pakistan on Monday with a four-wicket haul against Sri Lanka on Tuesday in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023. His back-to-back sparkling performances have helped India enter the final of the tournament.

Kuldeep’s four wickets helped him to 150 wickets in his ODI career with the left-arm spinner achieving the feat in his 88th match. He now has become the quickest ever Indian spinner to reach the milestone (by matches played).

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Pakistan legend Saqlain Mushtaq continues to be the quickest, having taken just 78 matches followed by Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan (80 matches) and Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka (84 matches).

Overall, he’s the second fastest Indian to the landmark after fast bowler Mohammed Shami who took 80 matches to get there.

India captain Rohit Sharma praised Kuldeep for yet another eye-catching show, revealing the bowler has put in a lot of hard work for the positive results.

“For the past year or so bowling really really well. He has done a lot of hard work on his rhythm. He went back to the drawing board and worked on it. The ball is coming out nicely and you can see the results in the last 10 ODIs,” Rohit said after India beat Sri Lanka by 41 runs in Colombo on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka’s ODI Streak Broken

India have brought an end to Sri Lanka’s winning streak in ODIs that began in June this year. Sri Lanka have now the second longest winning streak in the format that lasted 13 matches before Tuesday night’s defeat.

With 23 wins in a row between January 2003 and May 2003, Australia hold the record for having won the most consecutive ODIs in history.

Rohit Joins 10k Club

During the contest, Rohit became the sixth Indian to reach 10,000 runs in ODI cricket. He’s the second quickest to do so (in terms of innings) after Virat Kohli.

India will next face Bangladesh in an inconsequential third and final match of Super 4 stage.

Bangladesh are out from the final race having lost both their matches of the round so far meaning the Sri Lanka vs Pakistan contest now has become a virtual semifinal.