Kuldeep Yadav, in a candid chat with Michael Clarke, responds honestly to some of the questions from the former Australia World Cup-winning captain.
Kuldeep Yadav is enjoying a second wind in his career. The left-arm wrist-spinner whose career was on a downward spiral a few years ago – being left out of India’s squads and being plagued with injuries, Kuldeep has come into his elements under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. At the recently-concluded Champions Trophy, Kuldeep emerged as India’s third-highest wicket-taker with 7 scalps, next to Varun Chakaravarthy and Mohammed Shami. As a result of his splendid show, Kuldeep was rewarded by the ICC as he climbed up to third in the ODI rankings for bowlers.
Kuldeep Yadav is currently playing the IPL 2025 for Delhi Capitals(Reuters)
Kuldeep has been pretty much Rohit’s go-to spinner even outside of ODIs. To the extent that Australia’s World Cup-winning coach, Michael Clarke, reckons the spinner should consistently play all three formats for India. Clarke’s confidence stems from his belief that this is the best Kuldeep has ever bowled in his career, and although the competition is such that being a permanent feature in all India matches is tough, unless you’re a Virat Kohli, Rohit or Ravindra Jadeja, the former Australian captain believes Kuldeep is a must-have in all three.
“Watching you recently in the Champions Trophy, I think you are bowling the best I’ve seen you bowl. I say it openly, and this is my personal opinion, but I think you should be playing all three formats for India. But I know it’s hard. You have a lot of spinners in front of you,” he told the wrist-spinner in an interaction on the Beyond23 Cricket Podcast.
Also Read: Rishabh Pant pushes Kuldeep Yadav out of crease, removes bails in banter right before Ashutosh Sharma mayhem
Kuldeep acknowledged Clarke, admitting that he’s probably in the best form of his life. Having endured a time in his career when he didn’t play a Test match for India for two years despite taking a five-wicket haul, Kuldeep’s fortunes changed in 2022 when Rohit took over as India’s captain. He picked up 19 wickets in the Test series against England before being sidelined due to a groin injury – eventually diagnosed as a hernia – last year. However, since his return, Kuldeep has been making waves, taking one step at a time to become India’s No. 1 spinner across formats.
Kuldeep’s honest reply
“I think I have been bowling really well from the last 3-4 years. After the injury, when I came back, what I wanted to change in my bowling was to understand the batter better. I always had the rhythm. A lot depends on the surface as well. I bowled really well in the Champions Trophy. We were playing with 4 spinners so it is very difficult to get wickets – someone may always pick more wickets than you – but I thought I was right on the target, bowling wicket-to-wicket and showing more variations,” he told Clarke.
“Although I thought the wicket wasn’t great for spinners – it was slow – but it was very tough to produce that wicket. I underwent a hernia surgery in November so it was very difficult to come back and find the same rhythm going. I played a couple of games against England before the Champions Trophy and I personally feel that it was a good tournament for us and me.”
