Kuldeep Yadav looked totally off-colour in the Lords test of the England series where the English batsman hammered him around the ground and as a result the selectors sidelined him for last two test matches. There was a wide debate over his selection in red ball cricket but the chinaman spinner from Kanpur proved his worth by bagging a maiden five-wicket haul in the recently concluded test against West Indies in Rajkot.
Kuldeep, 23, picked only one wicket in the first innings and skipper Virat Kohli wanted him to get back to form and thus gave him more overs to bowl in the second innings which yielded great results for the spinner.
Kuldeep stepped up and revealed how bowling long spells for India A against touring Australia A team helped him get over the technical glitches. He picked 8 wickets in the second innings of second unofficial test match.
“It is very difficult to switch to red ball from white ball and vice versa, especially for a wrist spinner. It is challenging because you take time to get used to it. White ball is on the harder side, grips better. Red ball wears down faster, gets soft,” Kuldeep said.
“After coming back from England, I went to my coach at home, bowled with the red ball for three four days . It was difficult because after playing white ball format you lose rhythm with the red ball. I mainly focused on release of red ball, bowling slower as you tend to bowl faster with white-ball,” he added.
Kuldeep said that its a great feeling for him to pick a fifer in his comeback match.
“It is a great feeling, taking five wickets in a Test match. Red ball cricket is very close to my heart and I want to play this format for a long time. It doesn’t matter which side I am playing against. It is only my fourth Test, so this is very special.
