Kuldeep Yadav makes his return to the longest format after a long time since picking up an injury in the last home Test series against New Zealand. He wasn’t part of any away red-ball series against Australia and England, but he showed incredible skills with the ball in the shortest format of the game.

The morning session started with the Indian spinner sending back Shai Hope, who thought of the ball coming straight at him, but it drifted away off the surface to hit the stumps. In the very next over, he trapped Kevin Imlach before the stumps, who went in the backfoot and couldn’t tickle the ball into the leg side.

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But the best and most memorable wicket of the innings came for Kuldeep, Jayden Seales. He was on four wickets by the start of the second session as Shubman Gill kept going with him into the attack. The old ball wasn’t spinning much to make it hard for the batters, who looked in an aggressive mood.

Watch: Jayden Seales’ wicket gives Kuldeep Yadav his fifth fifer during IND vs WI 2nd Test

But once the second new ball was taken, there was a difference straightaway. On the fifth ball of his second new ball spell, Seales got beaten on his defense against Kuldeep as the ball hit him on the top of the pads. The umpire raised the finger instantly as the review couldn’t save the southpaw, with Kuldeep celebrating his first five-wicket haul after nearly 18 months, which spanned just two Tests though.

Kuldeep wields his magic with 5/82 🪄

WATCH his superb spell 🔽#TeamIndia | #INDvWI | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @imkuldeep18

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 12, 2025

With the wicket, Kuldeep joined Jonny Wardle to pick five five-wicket hauls in the red-ball format, which is the joint most in the history of the game, overtaking Paul Adams (4). He now has 19 wickets in the longest format in four games against this opponent at a strike rate of 33.8.

India, having bundled out the opponents for 248 runs, enforced the follow-on with a lead of 270 runs. This is the first time an Indian captain has enforced the follow-on with a sub-300 lead since Virat Kohli did it against Bangladesh in Fatullah in 2015.