Kuldeep Yadav had a torrid time at the Kolkata Knight Riders over the past few years. The left-arm spinner played 9 games in the 2019 season of the tournament, and only appeared in five matches throughout the 2020 edition. He was forced to miss the previous season due to an injury and was later released by the side ahead of the mega auction. His irregular appearances for the Knight Riders also cost him a regular place in the Indian limited-overs squads, with the spinner making scattered appearances over 2019, 2020, and 2021.
In the mega auction, Kuldeep was bought by the Delhi Capitals and things have improved for the left-arm spinner, with the chinaman bowler making a return to T20I side in February, and enjoying a strong start to the 2022 edition. In three matches so far, Kuldeep has taken six wickets.
On Sunday, Kuldeep had a reunion with the KKR as the Capitals faced Shreyas Iyer's side at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. On the occasion, former India pacer Rudra Pratap Singh, who has played with Kuldeep for Uttar Pradesh, spoke in detail about the 27-year-old bowler. After Parthiv Patel insisted that the presence of Indian head coaches and captain allow the players to interact more freely, RP Singh agreed by giving an example of Kuldeep.
"I actually agree with Parthiv. If you have an Indian coach in the support staff, the player is able to talk more freely. It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong; it is more about the player feeling light and comfortable. I've seen both, Kuldeep and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. We used to tell Bhuvi, "You have to do your best today and win the game today," and he used to actually put his best foot forward. Kuldeep's nature is different, he needs to be kept a little free. We used to tell him to just be himself and enjoy. And then he would perform," RP Singh said on Cricbuzz.
{{/usCountry}}"I actually agree with Parthiv. If you have an Indian coach in the support staff, the player is able to talk more freely. It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong; it is more about the player feeling light and comfortable. I've seen both, Kuldeep and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. We used to tell Bhuvi, "You have to do your best today and win the game today," and he used to actually put his best foot forward. Kuldeep's nature is different, he needs to be kept a little free. We used to tell him to just be himself and enjoy. And then he would perform," RP Singh said on Cricbuzz.
{{/usCountry}}Singh, who played 14 Tests, 58 ODIs and 10 T20Is for India, further have his own example to prove the point.
“You have to understand the nature of every player and it is only possible if you play alongside him. I will give you my own example; we used to have this foreign assistant coach. I once told him my issues, he wrote them on the board! I was surprised,” said RP Singh.
“I tried to explain to him about my issues and he wrote them on the board and instead started talking about it in front of everybody, and offered solutions for the same. At that time, you feel if there were an Indian coach, you could talk to him more freely over a cup of coffee. I feel Kuldeep lacked that. The format is such; we will take the wickets and we will concede runs. He could have been handled in a better way because he was doing well there. You removed him after only 1-2 games.”