Champions Trophy: Why Kuldeep Yadav, a dream bowler, a dazed fielder, amazes and aggravates team-mates in equal measure | Cricket News

There are a couple of players slower than him on the field, there are players who drop more catches than him, but it’s Kuldeep Yadav who is the target of the most fierce gestures from the captain Rohit Sharma or the senior Virat Kohli. Not without a reason, as Kuldeep can inexplicably slip into a state of laxity – be it not collecting a throw (which prompted both Rohit and Kohli to have a go at him during the game against Australia and Kohli and Jadeja to have a spray in the final against New Zealand), or bowling flatter, and not looking for wickets. “Aisa daalega toh, main bowling nahi doonga,” Rohit had once yelled from the slips in a Test.What makes Kuldeep Yadav the target for such ire? Because Rohit knows the value of Kuldeep the strike-bowler and the player when not wandering in the garden.
Last May, months after he made his comeback from a knee injury that had threatened to derail him, Kuldeep would talk about his relationship with the captain: “Rohit bhai has always supported me. When I was injured, he was continuously in touch with me, and specifically told me about what he wanted from me. After the injury, he picked me directly in the team. Now he is after me to improve my batting.”
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Rohit was ‘after him’ at the end of the Powerplay on Sunday at Dubai.

Kuldeep was just walking away from mid-off when Rohit called out to him and gestured that he was to bowl now. Kuldeep nodded and the time he reached the stumps to hand the cap to the umpire, Kohli was with him, patting his back and throwing in a word.
The game was supremely balanced, it could perhaps be even said that New Zealand had the advantage at that point as they were cruising at 69 for 2 in 10 overs. They had even begun to attack India’s trump card Varun Chakaravarthy.
Kuldeep ripped a googly first ball at nearly 85 kmph that hurried on to the left-handed Rachin. Either its direction or the pace seemed to surprise Rachin who couldn’t get his bat in time, and was hit on the pad-flap before it castled the stumps – lbw and bowled in one ball. Kohli leapt at his position with a raised f, and stood yelling in joy as Rachin walked past him; and was soon at the huddle, messing Kuldeep’s wild hair even as he let loose an celebratory expletive.
New Zealand still had Kane, fresh from a superb hundred where he had outwitted their best spinner Keshav Maharaj, alternating between moving outside leg and outside off to throw the left-armer off his rhythm. In Kuldeep’s first over, Kane had shown no signs of trouble, wring the legspinner down to long-on.Story continues below this ad
In Kuldeep’s second, the 13th of the innings, he leaned forward for a repeat of that single to long-on. But on a bone-dry pitch, Kuldeep had slowed up this one (slower than 82 kmph) and also released it from the front of the stumps on the bowling end. So, from almost a direct straight line and a lot slower. Kane stretched forward but the ball wasn’t quite there and it also perhaps slowed up a touch on landing, beating his wr-snap. And the ball lobbed back to Kuldeep, who swallowed it.
Ironically, it was that injury to the knee that had threatened his career that also brought him back to his best. He was out of the team, a touch rudderless, seeking tips from one former bowler to another, when he was told in no uncertain terms the NCA physical trainer Ashish Kaushik that he has to first sort out his action. That he cannot put weight on his right knee as it’s not going to take it.
During this tournament, broadcasters have been showing his jump prior to the release – it seems to have increased marginally from before, the front leg too bends more than before as a result, taking the load better.
Kuldeep’s childhood coach Kapil Pandey had explained the work done on Kuldeep in that phase. “After having a closer look at his medical report, I understood what Ashish ji meant. He wanted to protect his knee. We made a few adjustments in his run-up, I asked him to be aggressive. The results were not sudden. I made him bowl three hours in the morning and then a couple of hours in the evening at the nets but he needed match practice,” said Pandey.Story continues below this ad
He asked Kuldeep to play in a local T20 tournament in Kanpur. “Sir wanted me to get a taste of a match,” Kuldeep told this newspaper. “It was frustrating to start with. I was not getting my length right, I was losing the trajectory. I did work a lot and my leg would swell up but I would say, ‘Sir, don’t worry, I will apply ice’. He was with me through that journey. With the new run-up, I increased my pace but was bowling flat. After a couple of matches, I realised that batsmen were not getting more time with this new action and run-up. That was the first ray of hope I saw after a long time.”

Despite the presence of Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, Rohit Sharma still has a lot of belief in Kuldeep. And he has rewarded the trust with 7 wickets thus far. But one thing is certain; the moment he slips up on the field with his lack of awareness or laxity, both Kohli and Rohit would be after him – and that perhaps is a good thing for him as he immediately revs up his intensity.
(With inputs from Pratyush Raj)