India’s top spinner Kuldeep Yadav claimed that “bowling a lot” during the Duleep Trophy helped him regain his rhythm in time for the Asia Cup after warming the bench during the five-Test series in England.
With 17 wickets at an average of 9.29, Kuldeep finished the tournament as the highest wicket-taker. On Sunday, in the final against Pakistan in Dubai, he deceived the opposition batsmen to record impressive figures of 4/30 in four overs.
“When you have not played cricket for a long time you need rhythm… that was important for me and I played my first Duleep Trophy game in which I bowled a lot. So, when I came for the tournament, my bowling was obviously going well,” Kuldeep said during a chat with teammate Rinku Singh, the video of which uploaded by BCCI on its website.
“My role was to control the runs in the middle overs and take wickets. The captain had a lot of faith in me, and I fulfilled my role very well,” a pleased Kuldeep added.
Kuldeep, Varun Chakravarthy, and Axar Patel established a potent spin troika that baffled batters with their guile and variations.
“I don’t have fixed goals, my only motivation is to give my best, whenever I get a chance to bowl contribute to the team,” Kuldeep said on his preparations for the continental tournament.
After being given the challenging task of bowling in both the power play and death overs, mystery spinner Varun expressed his satisfaction at having met the team management’s expectations.
“Very glad to be doing this role for Team India and definitely when GG (head coach Gautam Gambhir) and (captain) Surya told me that I will be doing the tougher role, as in bowling in the power play and bowling in the death also.”
Varun described Sanju Samson as his biggest pillar of strength before sharing a brief interaction with the Kerala wicketkeeper, who contributed a valuable middle-order knock after India lost two early wickets in the final against Pakistan.
“This guy has been a pillar of support for me, yes, a very big pillar from the neighbourhood! Sanju Mohanlal Samson,” Varun said in another BCCI video as Samson joined him for a chat.
As India chased 147, Samson claimed he had to absorb the pressure following the early dismissals of Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma.
“I was a stable guy, I had to absorb the pressure, I had to just be there and watch the ball and play my game and use all my experience. I have been around for a few years now, so I know that I wanted some proper partnership with Tilak, good right-left combination…” Samson said.
“They were looking for wickets.. so I thought I will just play my shots and just looking at the ball and that really helped,” he added.
Rinku Singh claimed to have been putting a lot of effort into improving his batting and fielding after completing the chase with a boundary in the lone ball he faced during the game.
