Former Indian cricketer and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Gautam Gambhir was surprised with KKR’s decision’s to retain Kuldeep Yadav ahead of the mini-auction for the forthcoming 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 despite not giving the left-arm spinner enough chances.
Gambhir, who won two IPL trophies with KKR as captain, believes that KKR should have let the 'chinaman' Kuldeep go and play for another franchise if he isn't getting enough chances with the side.
In the last IPL 2020, Kuldeep got to play only in 5 out of 14 games for KKR despite Narine missing a few games, while played only nine games in the IPL 2019 despite being one of India’s premier spinners.
As the left-arm wrist-spinner was among the three spinners – Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine who have been retained by the KKR for the IPL 2021, the cricketer may find it hard to be regular in the KKR XI in the upcoming 14th edition of the tournament too, given the lack of trust by the management in him.
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Reacting to the same, Gambhir believes that Kuldeep should play for some other franchise that gives him more chances since an Indian player not being regular in the XI of the IPL team can be "harmful" to his career while stressing KKR should have released him if he isn’t part of their plans.
Speaking on Star Sports network, Gambhir said: “I am a little surprised about Kuldeep Yadav being retained because he did not get the opportunities. I would have wanted to see Kuldeep Yadav go to a franchise where he gets an opportunity to play.”
The former KKR skipper further noted, “Because if you are playing for India and not part of your franchise's playing XI, it is somewhere or the other be harmful to your career.”
However, since KKR has now retained the chinaman bowler, they should give him more chances because if the franchise had released him, a lot of teams would have gone for him at the auction, said Gambhir.
Gambhir signed off by saying, “Now that you have retained him, they should play him. Otherwise, I feel Kuldeep Yadav should have himself said that if he is not in their scheme of things, he should be given an opportunity to go and play somewhere else. If Kuldeep Yadav had come into the auction, a lot of franchises would have gone for him.”
