Kuldeep Yadav made his KKR debut under captaincy of Gautam Gambhir.
Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav heaped praise on former Kolkata Knight Riders' captain Gautam Gambhir, saying that Gambhir guided him as a leader and taught him everything.
Coming off the terrific show with the ball in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup, Kuldeep Yadav grabbed the attention of Kolkata Knight Riders and was picked by the franchise in the same year.
He not only did get to be part of the team, he even played his first game for the team in the Champions League later that year.
However, with the presence of a lot of spinners in the side, Kuldeep had to wait till the 2016 season to make his IPL debut.
The Chinaman spinner had a brilliant start to his IPL career picking up 29 wickets in the 2017 and 2018 seasons making him a constant fixture in the team.
Kuldeep Yadav, who was inspired by Shane Warne to be a wrist spinner, talked through his journey from being a senior member in the squad for the 2014 U19 WC to the Kolkata Knight Riders team.
"I was a senior player during the 2014 U19 World Cup and performances happened exactly according to expectations. From there I was selected for KKR and life changed drastically. I got plenty of time in KKR. There were a lot of senior players, especially Gautam Gambhir," Kuldeep Yadav said on KKR website.
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Yadav further revealed how Gambhir guided and helped him with his bowling which made him become confident.
"I always keep thanking him. He guided me as a leader and taught me everything. Even before I was about to play in the Champions League, he advised me what to bowl, how to hone my skills, and become a confident player." he said.
Kuldeep Yadav recalled his time as a youngster in KKR and said that he was nicely taken care of by some of the reputed names in the team.
"In my first season with KKR, I was a youngster and our team was packed with the likes of Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla and we had a few more good spinners in our squad," Kuldeep added. "I always felt that it was a good time for me to learn and get better.
I was coming out of my U-19 days. As KKR has always backed youngsters, they took good care of me. So that first season would always be important for me." he concluded.
However, things have changed drastically for Kuldeep in the last year and a half. He managed to take mere 5 wickets in the last two IPL seasons combined and was dropped from the XI by KKR.
In the last IPL 2020, Kuldeep got to play only in 5 out of 14 games for KKR despite Sunil Narine missing a few games, while played only nine games in the IPL 2019 despite being one of India’s premier spinners.