India leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav credits captain Virat Kohli for backing him at the international level. He adds how Kohli has taught him to handle pressure situations with ease.
During a heartfelt interaction, The 25-year-old spoke about India’s battle against coronavirus, and the future of the Indian Premier League.
“If your captain believes in you, giving your best on the field becomes easy. From Virat, we learn a lot of things like how to manage difficult situations. He never fails to motivate young players. I remember when I was new in the team he backed me a lot. In fact, now also, he is always there for me. He always appreciates your skills and we have a great tuning together. The best quality of Virat is that he also understands the team and its player’s well which makes our job easy on field,” Kuldeep said.
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The Indian off-spinner mentions how difficult it is for him to control his urge for good food amidst the lockdown. Kuldeep also speaks on maintaining fitness and spending quality time with his family in such difficult times.
Kuldeep said, “Lockdown must be difficult for a lot of people. I got a lot of time to rest, and my body recovered from the injuries. I spent a good amount of time with my family but at the same time, it’s been a challenge to maintain peak fitness. It was difficult at the start, but slowly things fell in place.”
“I made a proper schedule for myself and I am sticking to it. Was continuously in touch with the BCCI trainers, which made the whole process easier. Had was to follow a strict diet as the workout was not as intense as it used to be. Hence following a diet was of utmost importance…Sometimes I did rest, and cheat on my diet but I tried my best to stick to the routine,” he added.
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Kuldeep also shared his word on the much spoken about saliva debate. He revealed that players are habitual to it and will take some time to get rid of the habit. Kuldeep also expresses his eagerness to get back on the field.
“Definitely, after the pandemic is over and you step on the field, there will be a little scare. There is a lot of debate going on right now in terms of using saliva on the ball or not to use it. Yes, it’s going to be very difficult since kids we are used to applying saliva on the ball to make it shine. Now playing with the new rules will be tricky for sure. As it’s a habit for us, it will require a lot of control and a lot of practice. Let us just leave it to the experts. As a cricketer I am less scared and more excited about going on the field and playing,” he said.
