From being called as India’s primary spinner in Test cricket by head coach Ravi Shastri to struggling to nail a spot in India’s XI across formats, Kulddep Yadav’s career has taken a sharp u-turn. The left-arm spinner, however, hasn’t given up hopes of realizing his dream of making it to India’s squad for the T20 World Cup this year. With the Covid-19 situation forcing the Indian team to send a parallel squad of limited-overs specialists to Sri Lanka for the white-ball series, Kuldeep finds himself with an opportunity to impress and put his case forward for T20 World Cup 2021 selection.
While there’s no denying that the young spinner’s performances haven’t but up to the mark, team combinations and the need to strike the right balance have also hurt his case at times.
“To be very honest, frustrating wouldn’t be the correct word, as a player you are sad because you want to perform, you want to play the match. You can think like that, individually but not with cricket. Cricket is a team sport, and you have to play as per the requirements of the team. You have to think about the team and team combination matters a lot so it’s better to stay positive, keep putting in efforts, and wait for your opportunity to perform. Team combination for me has always been good, all have been supportive,” Kuldeep told ANI.
With foreign players unlikely to participate extensively in the second phase of IPL 2021, Kuldeep is likely to get game time that he lacked in the first phase with the Kolkata Knight Riders. The Lanka tour as well as the second half of IPL, hence, would be crucial to Kuldeep’s hopes of making it to the T20 World Cup with the Indian squad.
“For T20, nothing more than performance matters if you have to make space for yourself in the team. There is the Sri Lanka tour, then IPL, it will all be very important for me. I hope that I perform well to take place in my team. If I perform well in both the tournaments then hopefully, I’ll get a place in the T20 World Cup team,” he explained.
