Kuldeep Yadav received a lot of praise from his captain and the commentators as well although Kolkata Knight Riders did not make it to the finals of this IPL season by losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 22 runs in the Eliminator. The chinaman tried his best by taking 3 wickets but even that was not enough to lead KKR to the Qualifier 2.
During their last league match of the season, KKR vs SRH, Gambhir showed immense confidence in the chinaman and picked him ahead of the tried and tested Piyush Chawla, a decision that played off well. Kuldeep started with big sideways turn and exerted pressure on the well set Dhawan.
When he returned later for the 16th over later and sealed the deal for KKR, for whom it was not just the match but also the season at stake, by conceding just 7 runs and getting the wicket of talented New Zealander, Kane Williamson.
KKR eventually lost to the same opposition during the Eliminator and crashed out of the tournament but they did serve a healthy brewing environment for the chinaman.
Gambhir was full of praises about the spinner for his ability to mix the wrong’uns and the courage he showed to flight the balls and in an interview with Hindustan Times, he said, “He is in the tough business of bowling chinaman. Unlike orthodox spinners, his margin of error is pretty slim."
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The KKR captain elaborated and said, "Bowling left-arm chinaman seems like bragging newly-learnt amateur magical tricks at a family get-together. They look brilliant when they come off, but can get awfully embarrassing if they don't.
“On Sunday, Kuldeep's tricks came off. I was happy to see that young Indian spinner had the courage to flight the ball. This was only his second game of this season, but I have never seen him sulk about not getting a game."
Spinners nowadays play safe and look to just get over with their quota but Kuldeep showed enough courage to flight it and kept batsmen on backfoot, putting a break on the increasing run rate.
Former Indian Captain and Test legend, Sunil Gavaskar also noticed the talent that 21-year old holds and said, “He has been quite impressive and my honest advice to the Indian selectors will be to keep an eye on this young man.”
Kuldeep Yadav bagged 6 wickets in his 3 matches at an impressive average of 16.66 and will be looking to make an impact in domestics.
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