New Delhi | Despite performing well across formats, Kuldeep Yadav hasn’t got enough chances to play in the national team over the years due to various reasons.
But with all his might, the chinaman spinner is set to be India’s trump card or X-factor against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Test series starting February 9.
After his five-wicket haul in Sydney in 2019, then-head coach Ravi Shastri had termed Kuldeep as India’s No. 1 spinner in overseas conditions, but that hasn’t earned him regular chances.
The UP-born chinaman continued to do well like star spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel.
As far as white-ball cricket is concerned, the competition among spinners in India with the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy and even young Ravi Bishnoi has outpaced Kuldeep.
As expected, Kuldeep’s confidence was low, he lost his wicket-taking ability and even his usual innings for KKR in the IPL was not helping his case, much to the dismay of his fans.
In between, he also underwent a surgery in September 2021 and was sidelined. But as the saying goes, nothing lasts forever, such was Kuldeep’s poor form.
Kuldeep improved his action, which helped him to drift and dip more. Under the new Indian team management of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid, he is slowly but steadily fitting into the plans. He also found a new IPL team in Delhi Capitals, where he was successful under young captain Rishabh Pant.
However, after a successful IPL 2022, where he picked up 21 wickets in 14 matches, the spinner was once again ruled out by injury.
His wrist injury ruled him out of India’s T20I series against South Africa in June last year. Also for the white-ball tours of Ireland and England, and even after being fit, he could not make it to the T20 World Cup squad for India.
The time away from the game helped Kuldeep work on his rhythm, variations and he came back strong. Now Kuldeep has improved and his non-bowling arm goes towards the batsmen, which helps him to be in a better position.
Kuldeep has also worked on his arm speed which is a bit slow. As a result, the way he is bowling, his line of attack has got better.
According to cricket experts, Kuldeep’s improvement has become much more fatal. Who can put more pressure on the batsmen and can take wickets at any time.
With all his improvements, Kuldeep won the player of the match award for his five-wicket haul in the only Test of the series in Bangladesh in December last year.
However, he did not find a place in the playing XI for the second Test, which has been happening with Kuldeep for many years now.
Putting those issues behind him, Kuldeep has put in match-winning performances in the ODI series at home against Sri Lanka and New Zealand and has forced his way into India’s squad for the first two Tests against Australia, starting in Nagpur next week. Is.
–IANS
