Veteran Indian left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav bounced back with a bang in T20Is as he registered his best figures for the Indian team in the format on Thursday against South Africa. He claimed five wickets for just 17 runs in 2.5 overs and made sure that the visitors won the final game to level the series 1-1.
In a recent video posted by the BCCI, stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav was seen having a conversation with Kuldeep where he asked the latter whether having a chat with Yuzvendra Chahal helped him to claim five wickets.
Kuldeep Yadav said: “Chahal bhai had a long flight so we didn’t speak much. Just met him last evening where he told me not to change too much about bowling. Even when things weren’t great 2-3 years ago, he was always there for me. Hopefully we will try to do well if we play together in ODIs.”
READ MORE: “I want to play cricket for as long as I can” – Nathan Lyon
Kuldeep Yadav further added: “Wasn’t thinking much. The idea was to bowl to a particular length and then I observed that the pitch is slow and the quicker ones were gripping a bit. So I was just mixing my flighted deliveries with quicker ones. I did get a few lucky wickets as the ball was keeping low. Once I got three wickets, I thought let’s go for picking five wickets.”
However, Kuldeep Yadav also asked Suryakumar Yadav how he felt after scoring a record-equalling fourth hundred in the T20I format. Suryakumar also equalled Rohit Sharma’s record for the most T20I hundreds as well. It took just 57 innings for him to smash four T20I hundreds, showing his rise in the format.
READ MORE: Virat Kohli shares the importance of maintaining diet
On this, he said: “Whenever I walk out to bat, I don’t think about the amount of runs I have to score. I just want to go out there and enjoy my batting. I like to sprint out to the middle and get ready to face the first ball. It was good to get the Player of the Match and Player of the Series award by coming out of my comfort zone overseas. All the success reached God, God is great.”
“I just tried to see what I can offer to the team in those conditions. Even during the timeout, Rahul and Vikram Bhai came and told me to bat as deep as possible, so that’s what I tried. It’s a good thing to get level with Rohit Bhai, just grateful for everything,” he concluded.
