The technical inputs were specific: getting the front foot and back foot into line for a smooth transfer of body weight, imparting more revs, and bowling slower through the air.

The left-arm wrist spinner had endured a dip in form during the Test in Sri Lanka. Expected to play the role of lead spinner across formats, he had spent a considerable period warming the bench, and he appeared lost. As his childhood coach Kapil Pandey had revealed earlier, his action had been all over the place for months. His trajectory often remained flat and at times was quicker than usual.

Sivaramakrishnan saw why on video. “He was going far too across with his front leg. When we talk about alignment, we talk about the front foot and the back foot landing in a straight line. In Kuldeep’s case, when I saw a video of his, he was going a long way across with his front leg and it meant his back leg was getting locked, so the transfer of body weight into the delivery was missing. And a lot of people were advising him to bowl quicker, saying you’re too slow through off the pitch. That’s when the batsmen are playing off the back foot.”

The cost showed in the ball. Capable of turning it both ways, Kuldeep’s strength over the years has been the ability to deceive batsmen with turn and bounce. Flatter and quicker, he let them play him from the crease.

“If you bowl faster through the air, the ball spends less time in the air,” Sivaramakrishnan explains. “So the spin imparted on the ball and the revs on the ball will be far less because the ball is travelling very quickly through the air. So when that happens, the lack of revs and pace on the ball will make the ball skid onto the bat, making it easier to hit for the batters.”

The fix was to use more of himself. “These days most spinners are bowling with their hands. So I told him to bowl with your body to be effective. Like if you’re bowling with just your hands, you’re using 20-25 percent of your body weight. If you bowl with your entire body, you’re using 100 percent of your body weight, and that can happen only if alignment is straight at the point of release.”

During his stint with Yorkshire in County cricket, Kuldeep worked on the issues Sivaramakrishnan had highlighted. What followed was a different Kuldeep, one who extracted considerable turn and bounce even on green tops. “At the time of releasing the ball, the bowler should be on one leg. If he gets that in motion, because he’s using his entire body, he need not bowl quicker through the air. So there is more spin, more revs on the ball. After pitching, it will grip and turn and also the chances of drifting as well,” says the former spinner, who runs coaching clinics in different cities in India.

In the ODIs against West Indies at home earlier this month, Kuldeep showed what he can offer.

There are doubts whether India will use him on the smaller grounds in New Zealand, but Sivaramakrishnan says the call is straightforward. “Everybody who’s involved is thinking from the batsman’s point of view: good pitch, small ground, don’t play a spinner. Actually, if you play a spinner, the batsman is going to take more chances, which should be an advantage for Kuldeep.”

Sivaramakrishnan saw the proof on video when Kuldeep sent a stump flying in County cricket.

“Normally, the stumps don’t fly for a spinner, unless it’s got enough momentum on the ball. But in England, I saw one of the dismissals where the stump was going flying. So I could make out that he’s using his entire body in bowling. After seeing his success in England, he messaged me saying, ‘thank you’.”