A strong skillset and the ability to completely understand the ups and downs of a match has made Kuldeep Yadav a tough customer, but in 2019 the left-arm wrist spinner felt the need of a guiding force around him while playing. His form had deteriorated. For Kolkata Knight Riders. Kuldeep had anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery in 2020, but once he joined Delhi Capitals, his performances in both the national team and the IPL improved significantly, making him the first-choice spinner across all formats. Went.

He has taken 41 wickets in 33 matches since joining DC and he explained how things changed after the surgery and working for months under coach Kapil Pandey to develop new skills.

“At KKR, I needed guidance, but now I don’t need it, because now I dictate the terms. In 2019, Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni, his national team mentor) had retired that year and I needed guidance. The ideas I have now have come with experience,” Kuldeep said about his success in the last one and a half years.

Kuldeep bowls the most challenging overs, including the powerplay, and when asked about the recipe for his success, he attributed it to facing challenges head on.

“I still regret my time at KKR (from 2016-2020) and I feel that whatever I am doing now, I wish I could have done it earlier.

“I still feel sad that if I had worked on those skills, I could have been even more dominant,” Kuldeep said during a select media interaction.

“But that didn’t happen back then because experience is something you get only when you play a lot. Only when you face failure in life do you learn and now I am more confident about my skills and also respect the fact that the opponent can also be good,” said the clever spinner.

Maturity is something that has had a positive impact on him over the years.

“Earlier, I did not (respect the opposition). I was confident in my skills but at the same time you need to understand how the batsman is playing and there has been maturity, knowing your strengths and where to bowl so that it is difficult to hit, and I am working on that. “I am,” said. Kanpur one.

After the surgery, Kuldeep changed his run-up from diagonal to more perpendicular and also increased the pace of his deliveries with more drift and eccentric twist in his break-backs.

“The difficult thing was that before I had my knee injury (surgery for ACL), I was not bowling well. It is very important to have someone in your life who supports you. That’s when he went back to the drawing board and worked with his early coach Pandey.

“It could be your coach or your parents, and my coach supported me and reminded me not to hold back.

“That’s because you can disappear from sight. I was relaxed at the time of the injury. I was wondering how can I get better? There was apprehension about how things could go astray when one tries to add new things to one’s arsenal.

He said, ‘If I add new things to my bowling, there is a fear of it affecting the turn and drift. Those aspects may diminish while bringing in a new aspect.

“I tried it before but probably didn’t try it the right way. I tried to increase the speed in my balls but it didn’t work.

“Then my NCA physio gave me some tips and in a practice game, I tried bowling with increased pace and had long sessions with Pandey sir,” he said.

Kuldeep also thanked head coach Ricky Ponting and former DC assistant coach Shane Watson, who helped him when his form was a bit off.

Recently, in a podcast with Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep’s former KKR captain Dinesh Karthik talked about the “tough conversation” he had with the bowler, which he felt might not have been appreciated by the Chinaman bowler.

It seemed that Kuldeep had no problem with this.

“Obviously, it’s an old thing. If you have six quality spinners, you may get confused while making selections and Varun Chakravarthy was bowling well and I was not. The captain (Karthik) had a tough job and he did what he felt,” the 29-year-old said.

But he gave an interesting theory as to why Karthik probably trusted him.

“I performed well under DK Bhai. I didn’t play much in 2019. I think DK bhai plays spinners very well. I could be wrong but I think he thinks some other people also play spin like him,” said a smiling Kuldeep.

He also thanked Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who did not want Kuldeep to prove his mettle at the domestic level once again before calling him into the national team.

“I am grateful that they included me in the team after the injury and told me that I would be introduced slowly as I am coming back from injury.

“Now Rohit bhai doesn’t talk about my bowling because I do what he wants. Now, he is after me to improve my batting,” he says, laughing.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)