Former Indian left-arm spinner Maninder Singh has impressed on Indian young left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav and said he must be in the Indian team.

Singh likes Yadav’s attitude and desire to learn. The former Indian spinner also feels that the Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s trust on the young lad has increased in recent days.

Talking about Kuldeep Yadav, Singh told CricketNext, “I really like this boy’s attitude and his desire to learn. He is keen to ask the seniors of areas he can improve and is always looking to work on his game. There is no end to learning and the moment you realise that there is no scope of complacency.”

“Also, I think Kohli’s increasing trust on him has helped. We all know the scenario wherein former coach Anil Kumble and Kohli had a difference in opinion on playing the spinner in the Dharamsala Test against Australia. But things have changed and that has helped Yadav also gain confidence.”

Kuldeep Yadav is running in a dream form. Since the beginning of the UK tour, Yadav is continuously troubling the opponent batsmen in style. After performing greatly in the T20I series, Yadav bagged six wickets (6/25) on Thursday in the first ODI of three-match ODI series against England at Trent Bridge (Nottingham) that led the team to clinch an easy dominating victory.

Maninder Singh believes that if Kohli has to pick up only one spinner in the upcoming five-match Test series, Kuldeep is the only best choice.

The 53-year-old said, “If you ask me, very much. If you play only one spinner, it should be Kuldeep Yadav and there is no two ways about it. The guy is in great form and deserves his opportunity.”

Also read: Virat Kohli Fancies Kuldeep’s Chances In Test Series

Singh also praised Kuldeep’s wrist position as it makes tough for the opponent batsmen to read him properly.

Analysing Yadav’s wrist-position, Singh said, “While you have to realise that the English batsmen aren’t really reading him off the wrist and have relied on reading him off the pitch, the close-in shots of his wrist positions while bowling the leg-spinner, googly or straighter one shows that there is minimal change in the position of the wrist or the arm speed. That makes it all the more difficult as video analysis helps when there is a visible difference in wrist positioning at the time of release.”

Singh further praised Yadav’s accuracy to bowling in right areas consistently as the former feels that it is a very difficult job for the left-arm wrist spinner.

Singh said, “If you keep a close watch, you will see that he will keep bowling in the right areas and not give you too many bad balls. This is his strength as it is very difficult to be pin-point accurate when it comes to bowling left-arm wrist spin. There have been similar bowlers before as well, but lack of accuracy has seen them leak runs and not make an impact.”

“In Yadav’s case, another good thing is that he looks to work on his strength and bowl to his field rather than pre-empting too much on what the batsman might try to do. It is always good to believe in your own abilities,” Singh further added.

Also read: Michael Atherton feels IPL has disrupted the cricket

On the other hand, former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) assistant coach Vijay Dahiya has credited former Australian and KKR left-arm chinaman bowler Brad Hogg for Yadav’s massive improvement in bowling skills. As he worked with Kuldeep Yadav very closely, Dahiya lauded Yadav’s hard-work and learning ability.

Dahiya told CricketNext, “When you have an experienced campaigner like Hogg around, you learn a lot. One of the major areas of concern for Kuldeep was that he was a bit slow off the wicket. If the batsmen can read you off the pitch, that reduces the threat. You can’t give the batsmen time to read you off the wicket at the international level. And I feel that is the area where he has worked on.

Also read: Alex Hales Ruled Out Of The ODI Series

“He would keep talking to Hogg about the nuances of chinaman bowling and what we see today is the result of a lot of hardwork behind the scenes. Being young also helps because then you are much more open to ideas and look at learning from the senior pros.”