Wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav is having a great time in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Delhi Capitals (DC).
On Sunday (April 10), Kuldeep starred in DC’s resounding 44-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The chinaman bowler returned with the figures of 4 for 35 in his four overs.
With this Player-of-the-Match performance, Kuldeep now has 10 wickets to his name in the IPL 2022 season. He had registered bowling figures of 3/18, 1/32, and 2/31 in DC’s first three outings against MI, GT, and LSG respectively.
Praising his exploits, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting on Monday (April 11) said Kuldeep hadn’t played for two years with KKR, and knew that if the wrist-spinner was given confidence, he could be one of the “finds of the tournament”.
“We are unlocking little handbrakes that might be holding players back. Even Kuldeep Yadav. For someone like him to be at KKR for couple of years and not playing – I understand they have some good spinners – one of the reasons I identified him at the auction was for that reason. I thought if we could bring him into our environment and really give him lots of confidence, I thought he could be one of the finds of the tournament,” Ponting said in The Delhi Capitals podcast. “He is bowling beautifully and growing in this environment.
Ponting highlighted the importance of staying patient with spinners like Kuldeep Yadav.
“With spinners in T20 cricket there will be ups and downs. Regardless of his performances, he will be treated the same by us and the teammates. That’s the family environment here. It doesn’t matter what the results are,” he said.
Ricky Ponting also spoke about the lack of opportunities Kuldeep was getting in the Indian team, KKR and how Delhi Capitals were waiting for the chance to get him into the side.
“The thing with him he has been out for 3-4 years, hardly played any cricket at all. With the Indian team, he has been on the outer and with KKR, with [Varun] Chakravarthy and Narine, and even Shakib [Al Hasan] it has been hard for him to get a game.”
“I have watched him for number of years and have talked about him leading up to other actions for number of years as well but it wasn’t till this year we could get our hands on him. It’s great to hear that he feels confident and that’s our job.”
