Around three years ago, Kuldeep Yadav’s bowling speeds were in the range of 75 to 80 km/h. In modern-day cricket, where batters are increasingly more adventurous, it seemed as if India’s left-arm wrist spinner had lost his mojo after a great start, and his career was at crossroads. The point was further illustrated by Kuldeep’s modest record in 2019: 32 wickets at 34.68 in ODIs. In 2018, the same bowler had touched a different zone in both ODIs and T20Is – 45 scalps at just under 18 and 21 wickets at 9.8 respectively.
Kuldeep seemed to have lost confidence, and as a result he was perhaps imparting less revs on the ball. So, it was time to refine and tweak his skills. To stop the batter from decoding his weaponry – stock ball and googly, he also altered another part of his armour. At that juncture, to make the necessary changes, he went back to his coach, Kapil Pandey. After a while, the speeds increased, alongside appreciable revs on the ball.
“From the time of Covid-19, we were working hard,” Pandey told RevSportz. “The ball was coming out slow, especially in T20s. One has to bowl faster, one has to add more revs on the ball. As per the changing times, changes have to be done in bowling. They (opposition teams) will be seeing your videos. If you look at the seam of the delivery, we have made changes to it. So that one doesn’t pick it, and if you bowl with good speed in internationals, it becomes a bit difficult to pick it. He is mixing it up (lengths and variations) very well.”
If you delve a little bit deeper into the mechanics of Kuldeep’s bowling, it can be seen that he seems to be zeroing in on the stumps more often in the recent past. To validate the point, 20 of Kuldeep’s 34 ODI scalps since the beginning of last year have been either bowled or LBW. Before that, only 37 of his 107 wickets came through those modes of dismissal. “The main points are bowling your googly, stock ball, top-spinner, and flipper and keeping it within the stumps,” said Pandey. “Not to bowl short, so the batter doesn’t get the chance to play the pull.”
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Another facet of the game, which the coach and pupil worked on was improving the control. His unrelenting control was on full display in the recently concluded T20I rubber in the West Indies, where he seemed to have complete confidence in both his googly and stock ball. Pooran’s two dismissals in that series served as an example.
“The important thing was spot bowling, I worked on that,” said Pandey. “Bowling on a length is called spot bowling. If you bowl in that area, the batter can be dismissed stumped. The eye contact, the head has to be still and lean forward. The speed increases and the length also improves.”
In the context of the much-awaited India-Pakistan clash at the Asia Cup 2023, what does Pandey think about his pupil’s temperament? Alongside having full faith in his ward’s skills, the coach fondly remembered a certain delivery in the 2019 World Cup that had lovely drift and turned appreciably to befuddle Babar Azam, the current Pakistan skipper. Incidentally, the previous year, he had removed Babar with a googly.
“In the World Cup, he had bowled Babar Azam with a big leg break,” said Pandey. “I wish he again creates pressure on Babar Azam and dismisses him. Not just Babar Azam, I hope he takes 3-4 wickets in the match, and powers India to a win. More than the wickets he takes, it is about India winning. You don’t want to lose to Pakistan. Hopefully, he can do his best performance.”
Behind someone’s success, there is always a story of pain and perseverance. In Kuldeep’s case, he didn’t just have to navigate through indifferent form, but he also went under the knife in 2021. In fact, Pandey had once told this writer how Kuldeep used to practice every single day from 9AM to 5PM after returning from the injury. He also practiced against age-group and Ranji players.
All the sweat and toil seems to have paid off. A couple of years on, Kuldeep is enjoying his game, and bamboozling the batters with his enhanced repertoire.
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