Hyderabad: Young Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav revealed that senior Australian leggie Brad Hogg’s advice helped him develop as a spinner, and eventually earned him a call-up to the Team India Test squad.
Kuldeep, 22, has been bamboozling batsmen on the domestic circuit for some time now, picking up 81 wickets from 22 First-Class matches. The Uttar Pradesh spinner’s credentials have been bettered with his performances for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The 22-year-old says that discussing the ‘chinaman’ style of bowling with an experienced player like Hogg in the KKR camps helped him bring more variety to his bowling.
“The experience of playing alongside Brad Hogg (another Chinaman bowler) helped me a lot,” Kuldeep said to Sportskeeda. “We often discussed bowling together in the nets, and it was he who helped me bowling flippers, the faster ones and wrong-uns.”
Interestingly, Kuldeep revealed that he did not have any interest in being a spinner during his younger days; pace bowling attracted him more. It was only by chance that the Kuldeep was asked to bowl spin one fine day, and his coach instantly recognised the potential in the youngster.
“I was a left-arm fast bowler and did not even know what chinaman was. One fine day, at the academy where I trained, my coach asked me to start spin-bowling,” said Kuldeep. “And the very first delivery I bowled was a chinaman, unaware of what it was. From that point of time, my coach asked me to continue nurturing the rare skill.
“Initially, I did not enjoy chinaman bowling and also faced some difficulties, but with time, I got used to it.”
While being selected for India’s squad for the one-off Test against Bangladesh is a milestone achievement in Kuldeep’s career, the 22-year-old still has a lot to prove to the selectors, as he has not been included in Team India’s starting XI.
