New Zealand vs India 2020: R Sridhar rubbishes concerns over Kuldeep Yadav's fitness

Team India's fielding coach R Sridhar has brushed aside question marks surrounding the fitness of Kuldeep Yadav, stating that the left-arm chinaman bowler is fully fit. However, Kuldeep has played a handful of international matches in the recent past and Sridhar feels that might have had a negative impact on his bowling.

Kuldeep, who has emerged as the premier spinner for India in the limited-overs set-up has been pretty inconsistent in the last few months. He hasn’t been given a long rope which might have affected his performances. He warmed the benches for all the five matches in the T20I series against New Zealand.

The left-arm spinner played his first match of the New Zealand tour during the opening ODI and had a poor day at the office. He bagged a couple of wickets but went for 84 runs in his 10-over spell and failed to pile the pressure on the Kiwis batsman during the middle overs.

Meanwhile, it has been surprising to see Kuldeep getting left out for several games despite emerging as a potent wicket-taking option. He was also dropped from the Test side which was surprising, especially given the fact that Ravi Shastri had called him the No 1 spinner in overseas conditions.

Meanwhile speaking on Kuldeep’s fitness issues ahead of the 2nd ODI, Sridhar said,

"He is fully fit and he is not carrying any injury. He is totally cleared to play all the games. He has played a lot of ODI cricket, played all three games against Australia. He didn't play the T20s as Chahal was there. Maybe Kuldeep is the kind of guy who needs a lot of overs under his belt to get his rhythm.

"Typical leg-spinner thing, I would suppose with a lot of overs under the belt. On and off, he is playing the odd one-day game. I think he is a good bowler and he has got all his skills. I think the New Zealand batters played him really well.

The Men in Blue are currently trailing 0-1 in the three-match ODI series and need to win the remaining two games to win the series.

Despite having their backs against the wall, the Indians know how to turn situations around and it was quite evident during the recently-concluded home ODI series against Australia. Hence they will take heart from this fact and come out all guns blazing in the two must-win games.

"When we come across a situation like this, we embrace it. We want these situations and the leadership group of this team wants to be in a tough situation. It's always good to be under pressure," Sridhar added.