He is the second highest Indian wicket taker in Twenty20 format
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav was omitted in the T20I squad of the West Indies tour and the home series against South Africa. However, his exclusion from the squad didn’t put him down. He was selected for the India A side to compete against South Africa A in a Test match. The match ended in a draw in Mysore on September 20. Kuldeep scored 4 for 121 in 29 overs.
Kuldeep said that he is not worried about not being picked in the T20I squad by the selectors. ‘So far, I have done a good job in the limited-overs format. I feel very comfortable with the white ball’, he said.
‘I am not worried about not being picked for the last two T20I series. Maybe the selectors felt I needed a break. Maybe the team thinks some changes are required. I respect that, I have no complaints. I see this as an opportunity to do well in Tests’, he added.
Kuldeep has claimed 81 wickets at an average of 22.97, the ninth-best in the world. He only achieved this record after playing in 68 T20 matches. The spinner also has a strike rate of 18.1 which is the seventh-best among all spinners.
Talking about hardships of playing consistently in three different formats, Kuldeep said that it takes a lot of practice and hard work to excel. ‘It’s hard to play red-ball cricket when you aren’t consistently playing that format. If you aren’t a regular in this format, it takes time to get into your rhythm. When you are consistently playing limited-overs and suddenly switch to Tests without much preparation, it will be tough to excel’,
‘You need to bowl long spells, play practice games, to understand field placements and to know how to pick wickets. It was important for me to come here (in the India A game) and bowl as many overs as possible. There is still plenty of work to do’, he said.
Kuldeep Yadav is an Indian cricketer who plays for the Kolkata Knight Riders, a participating team in the Indian Premier League. To know more about the IPL, check out the page at Betwala.
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