Kuldeep Yadav didn’t say he has got David Warner’s number but came really close. You would, wouldn’t you if as a 22-year-old you have managed to dismiss one of cricket’s most flamboyant batsmen five times?
“If you go through a phase when you are dominating a batsman, you will fancy your chances against him. It is the same with me when Warner’s at the crease. I bowl at him thinking I can get him out. I know the pressure’s all on him. And I think he feels the pressure as well when I come on. There are four more games to go so let’s see… We need to get Warner out as fast as possible as he can change the game quickly,” said Yadav, one day before the second one-dayer against Australia here on Thursday.
Wonder what the batsman to whom Ian Chappell thinks there is a lot more than going slam-bang feel about this assessment.
The other batsman Yadav singled out was Australia skipper Steve Smith. “I have found him to be the toughest to bowl to in this Australia line-up. He reads deliveries well and knows how to work the singles. And he can also play shots. If either of them bat 30-40 overs, the pressure will be on us.”
{{/usCountry}}The other batsman Yadav singled out was Australia skipper Steve Smith. “I have found him to be the toughest to bowl to in this Australia line-up. He reads deliveries well and knows how to work the singles. And he can also play shots. If either of them bat 30-40 overs, the pressure will be on us.”
{{/usCountry}}Being in the limelight in a fledgling international career isn’t new to Yadav but he is aware of the responsibility on him and Yuzvendra Chahal in the absence of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. “This partnership will certainly help us and hopefully, Indian cricket. We will mature series by series, hopefully,” he said.
The other novelty for Yadav has been playing with another wrist spinner. It hadn’t happened before Chennai, he said.
“Not even in junior cricket. Yes, I did play with some left-arm spinners and then with Piyush Chawla in the Ranji Trophy but that too wasn’t for long. It is a nice experience because two wrist spinners mean more chances of getting a wicket. Variations from a left-arm spinner is limited and batsmen often don’t take chances against him. The chances of a wrist spinner deceiving a batsman are more.”
His craft gives a captain attacking options but Yadav said he is working on honing defensive abilities too. “Sometimes I feel you need to give one batsman a single and attack the other one. I am working on it, at nets and by analysing videos of my bowling,” he said.
‘Learnt a lot from PC’
Signed by Kolkata Knight Riders soon after the under-19 World Cup in 2014, Yadav said it was important for him to have someone he could talk to, on the field and beyond the boundary.
“When I came to KKR, it had quality spinners in Sunil Narine, Shakib (Al Hasan) and then Brad Hogg joined. It was a great experience. To have someone like ‘PC bhai’ (Chawla) was a big help because you needed someone to talk to, someone to tell you what to do. As a senior he supported me a lot. In the three years that I have been with him, I have learnt a lot,” said Yadav.