Kuldeep Yadav has been making a successful comeback to the Indian team over the last few months. However, his journey to regain form and confidence has not been an easy one. Prior to his comeback, Kuldeep faced several challenges during his stint with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Kuldeep’s inconsistency led to him being in and out of the KKR team, which in turn affected his confidence. The turning point came during the 2019 IPL season when he was hit for 27 runs in an over by Moeen Ali during the game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. This incident shattered his confidence and marked the beginning of him being left out of the Knight Riders core group.
In the recent episode of ‘Breakfast with Champions,’ Kuldeep threw light on the entire incident. The left-arm spinner said: “I hadn’t gone for that many runs before. He (Yuzvendra Chahal) had bowled a lot in Chinnaswamy so he was experienced. But I was shocked to see myself go for those many runs.
“I used to underestimate batters before. I thought that ‘How would a left-hander (Moeen Ali) hit me? I gave around 22-24 runs and suddenly the game seemed to be over.
“I never experienced anything like that. Rohit [Sharma] Bhai and Hardik [Pandya] Bhai too had called me and made me understand that such things happen.”
However, after moving to Delhi Capitals (DC), Kuldeep has had a new lease of life. He has been in exceptional form in the last two IPL seasons.
In IPL 2022, he picked up 21 wickets in 14 games, and in the current season, he has already taken eight wickets in nine games with an economy rate of 6.74. His best performance of the campaign came against reigning champions, Gujarat Titans, on May 2. Kuldeep’s fabulous spell of 4-0-15-1 helped DC beat GT by five runs despite posting just 130 runs on the board.
