Kuldeep Yadav came into the World Cup low on form, but has gradually improved in confidence over three games. He had a couple of decent spells against South Africa and Australia – 1/46 and 0/55 – but was at his best in Sunday’s game against Pakistan in Manchester, picking up 2 for 32 in the chase. His dismissals of Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman triggered a collapse and nailed the game for India.
Kuldeep stressed he never doubted his skills, and explained that T20 form had nothing to do with ODI cricket.
“I have been bowling well from the first match, I don’t ever doubt my skills,” he said after India’s win. “This is a 50-over game, it is a very long format, it is not like T20 format. Sometimes you bowl well and can still get hit, you may not get wickets. So at that time, it is very important to back yourself. In the match against Australia, I kept the scoring in check because good players were batting. Although I didn’t get wickets, their required rate kept going up. When the ball leaves your hand nicely, slowly the wickets also start coming.”
The centurion on Sunday, Rohit Sharma, too stressed on the need to keep Kuldeep confident.
“Kuldeep is someone who needs a lot of confidence before going into his spell,” he said after his ton against Pakistan. “As a team, we’ve been talking about him, how big a match winner he’s been for us in the last year or so. He’s got 47 games and almost 90 wickets. That is almost two wickets per game. That’s a hell of a record for a spinner, and most of the wickets have come out of the sub-continent for him.”
