New Delhi: India spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who was dropped from the Test squad for the upcoming World Test Championship final and the five-match series against England has revealed the contribution of former skipper MS Dhoni had in his career. He also opined that he misses the guidance of Dhoni behind the stumps.
Needless to say, it has been the toughest past six months for Yadav. In the last six months, Yadav has played only one Test and two ODIs. Things have changed since last year for him. He couldn’t even find a place in playing XI for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2021.
Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal – ‘Kul-Cha’ – flourished in the limited-overs formats in 2017. The duo, who became India’s prime spin-bowling option across formats at one stage, is now struggling to keep their places in the squad. Since the last World Cup, Yadav has featured in 12 ODIs in which he has managed 12 wickets at an average of 58.41.
Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket in August 2020 and since then Rishabh Pant has taken the role of wicket-keeper in the team. “Sometimes I miss that guidance because he has a great experience. He used to guide us [from] behind the wickets, kept screaming. We miss his experience. Rishabh is there now. The more he plays, the more input he will give in the future. I always felt every bowler needs a partner who can respond from the other end,” Yadav was quoted as saying to The Indian Express.
The 26-year-old spinner also reckoned that he didn’t play as many matches that he expected he would. He only played a handful of ODIs since the retirement of Dhoni. “When Mahi bhai was there, I and Chahal were playing. Ever since Mahi bhai left, Chahal and I haven’t played together. I played only a handful of games after Mahi bhai left.
“I must have played ten-odd games. I had even taken a hat-trick. If you look at the performance as a whole, it will look pretty decent but if one breaks it up then my performance sometimes can look not up to the mark. One has to also look at the opposition we are playing against.
“I didn’t play as many matches as I expected to, and somewhere I was low on confidence. When you are playing non-stop, players do feel high on confidence. The more one sits out the more it gets tougher. I felt a huge pressure on me when I played the Test against England in Chennai this February,” he added.
