Kuldeep Yadav will forever remain a curious case. The left-arm spinner who made his Test debut in 2017 against Australia has so far played just 19 Tests, and management after management has overlooked him for the longest format. Recently, Kuldeep was overlooked for the second Test against Sri Lanka, as Saransh Jain made the playing XI in Colombo, where the match ended in a draw. The spinner also finds himself out of favour when it comes to the T20I side, as the management has been preferring Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy ahead of him.
However, Kuldeep is not sulking as he is busy playing county cricket for Yorkshire. Recently, he claimed 10 wickets in the innings victory over Essex, including career-best figures of 6/50 in the second innings. It was the first time Kuldeep had taken 10 wickets in a First-Class match.
Kuldeep was also forced to watch from the sidelines during India’s five-Test tour of England last year, failing to make a single appearance in the series. Asked about that omission following his outstanding display for Yorkshire, the 31-year-old admitted that being left out throughout the tour had been difficult.
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“Sometimes you just have to go with the team combination or strategy, unfortunately or fortunately. Definitely, you feel bad for yourself when you’re not playing, when you’re not part of the playing XI,” Kuldeep told Neil Manthorp and former England fast bowler Steve Harmison in a talkSPORT interview.
“You want to play because when you are in the squad, you want to play, but sometimes it doesn’t happen because of whatever the management thinks. Last year, I was hoping to get a chance in a few games, but it’s okay. Maybe next time,” he said.
However, when he was asked whether this performance in the county proved a point to the team management, Kuldeep said, “Not really. It is not about proving a point here. I am just here to enjoy. It is all about enjoying. When you are enjoying, you end up bowling to the best of your ability.”
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Kuldeep made it clear that his decision to return to county cricket was not motivated by a desire to prove a point to India’s selectors or anyone else. Instead, he said he simply wanted to play and enjoy competitive cricket.
“I personally feel it’s (English county experience) very good for batters and spinners. Obviously, you will see seaming conditions here and there, but you play here to get used to the challenges you face. You’re not going to face them back home because you grew up playing there and you know the conditions pretty well,” Kuldeep said.
“So you come here and face different challenges, different conditions. Some pitches are very dry here; if you go to the south side, you’ll feel that there’s a dryness in the wicket. When you come (a) bit north, like Yorkshire, you’ll see a bit of cold,” he added.
