Kuldeep Yadav barely played cricket in the last two years. Besides falling out of contention from the Indian squad, Kuldeep’s struggle saw him being dropped for most of the season between 2020 and 2021 for Kolkata Knight Riders. But the left-arm leg-spinner bounced back in style in the ongoing 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) where he has picked 17 wickets in nine games for Delhi Capitals and stand second among wicket-takers.
While Kuldeep’s resurgence left many guessing over what changed for the youngster, his childhood coach Kapil Dev Pandey hailed present Indian skipper Rohit Sharma for “protecting” his career and revealed that it was him who called up the bowler for the West Indies T20I series and offered him a game as well before 2022 IPL.
“Whenever captains trusted him, Kuldeep delivered. He has a good record in Tests. He has two hat-tricks in ODIs. He has a good T20I record. But still, he didn’t get enough opportunities. This is really shocking. Kuldeep’s career is protected because of Rohit Sharma. Rohit is the man behind Kuldeep’s resurgence. He is a fantastic captain and he knows how to find talent in a big group of players. Ahead of the IPL, Rohit called Kuldeep and gave him the chance (against the West Indies). Kuldeep delivered too by taking two wickets,” Pandey told timesofindia.com.
“Rohit kept a close eye on Kuldeep, his Yo-Yo Test and rehab reports. Rohit was impressed with Kuldeep’s rehab programme. Rohit should be credited for Kuldeep’s comeback. He wouldn’t have been here today without the support of Rohit, Pant and Ponting,” he added.
Pandey further revealed that former skipper Virat Kohli, under whom Kuldeep had grown into a force to reckon with in limited-overs cricket alongside Yuzvendra Chahal, preffered Axar Patel over the leggie owin to the former’s batting abilities.
“Every captain has their own style of captaining and picking players. Kuldeep played a lot of cricket under Virat. Virat wants experience in the side. He went with Ashwin and Jadeja. He preferred Axar ahead of Kuldeep because of Axar’s batting capabilities. A captain has to trust his players,” Pandey said.
With his impressive show this season, where he has already won four Man of the Match awards for Delhi, Kuldeep has surely bounced back to falling into reckoning for the T20 World Cup later this year in Australia.