Guwahati: Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav has indeed turned out to be one of the most important parts of the Indian bowling attack but the youngster feels that he isn’t thinking himself to be a replacement for either Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja.
In the recently concluded ODI series against Australia, India played two wrist-spinners in the form of Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal and the move was indeed an effective one as the two young bowlers provided breakthroughs whenever the captain required one and they played an instrumental role in India leading the three-match T20I series 1-0.
“I don’t think of that far. Both Ash and Jaddu bhai have been consistent performers for India in all the three formats. There’s no question of thinking about replacing them,” said Kuldeep, ahead of the second T20I, Kuldeep in an interaction with the reporters.
The 22-year-old further added, “We are very young, and there’s a lot of cricket left in us. It has never cross my mind.”
One of the main reasons for the Australians to succumb to a crushing 4-1 ODI series win has been their inability to pick the chinaman bowler but Kuldeep asserts that he isn’t a, ‘mystery’ bowler.
He said, “I’m not a mystery bowler who will bowl from different hands. Obviously after two-three years they will pick you and it becomes easy for them. For me, if your basics like alignment and accuracy are right, it becomes easy for you.”
“For me it does not matter if someone tries to pick you from video analysis. If you bowl in right areas, have good variations, landing on the spot and beating the batsmen in air, no matter how many times you see the video it won’t matter,” he added.
The youngster also emphasized on the need to focus on the basics in order to become successful as he said, “In T20s you can get wickets anytime as batsmen always try to hit you out of the park. Your basics need to be right without thinking much about the batsmen. If you focus on your strengths, you become more successful.”
Yadav credited his development as a chinaman bowler to Australian great and former KKR teammate Brad Hogg and spin legend Shane Warne.
He said, “Both play a very important role in my career. I’ve followed Shane Warne since childhood. He’s my idol. My life will be a success if I could achieve 50 per cent of what he has achieved. I stay in touch with him.”
“I’ve been with Hogg in KKR for two seasons, I’ve learnt a lot from him as well. I still talk to Hogg on my bowling. It’s very important when you talk with senior players who have played a lot and legends in their games. Your career gets a boost even if you gain some experience from them,” he further added.
He also mentioned as to what he learnt from Warne.
“His wrist work, flight and drift, and the way he deceives any batsman. I will be successful if I get to learn something from him,” he said.
He also said that he has learnt to bowl the, “flipper or the wrong one” from fellow chinaman Hogg.
He also added, “He’s (Hogg) 46 now with a career span of over 23 years. For me, it’s just the start of my career. It’s great to learn from him. All these small things are useful for me.”
Kuldeep also spoke about the, ‘good understanding’ he shares with spin bowling partner Yuzvendra Chahal. The duo scalped a total of 16 wickets among them in the five ODI’s and a solitary T20I so far and has been successfully handling Indian’s spin bowling attack.
He said, “I have a very good partnership going on with Chahal. We know each other for five years. It’s easy to understand each other’s plans. It helps on the ground if we keep talking to each other. There’s a good understanding going on between us. We bowl in partnerships in a match as well, the difference is evident.”
While the rise of Kuldeep and Chahal has been one of the best things to happen to Indian cricket of late, ace spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been overlooked for the past few limited overs’ series that India played. With the team management looking to build a team for the 2019 World Cup, Ashwin earlier said that gs isn’t worried too much about making it to the squad for the marquee tournament and believes that his opportunity will definitely come.
He said, “I know one day the opportunity will come knocking on my door because I haven’t done too much wrong. When I get that opportunity, I’ll probably rise to the occasion.”