Kuldeep wants to play more red-ball cricket

Kuldeep Yadav doesn’t have impressive numbers to show from the England Test series. The chinaman bowler just played one game, the second Test in Lord’s, where he went wicket-less. India left out the Kanpur bowler for the last two matches of the five-match rubber.

The 23-year-old, playing just his fourth Test, clinched his maiden five-wicket haul here at the Saurashtra Cricket Association stadium in India’s massive win over the West Indies. Speaking on his experience in England, Kuldeep said playing with the Dukes ball was challenging.

“In England, the conditions were different, maybe I could have bowled well there, but it did not happen that way. I was bowling in a good length but that time I was not used to the Dukes ball. That ball is too hard compared to the SG ball, you need probably 10-15 days to get used to the conditions and the ball as well,” explained Kuldeep at the post-match conference.

Kuldeep felt coming back to India and playing first-class cricket for India ‘A’ was helpful. “When I came back from England, I played with the SG ball, it probably took me about two innings to gain confidence and in the second four-day game against Australia ‘A’, I got five wickets and everything changed from there on. Here as well, in the first innings I started normally, and I got back the confidence in the second innings with my five-wicket haul."

A key figure in India’s limited overs set-up, Kuldeep said he is working on excelling in red-ball cricket. “I went to my coach after returning from England. I bowled a lot with the red ball for three-four days. It was difficult for me. Playing with the white ball, you tend to lose the rhythm (for red-ball cricket). I was with my coach and concentrated a lot on bowling around the wicket as well as over the wicket. I worked on my release, also on the pace since in one-dayers your pace increases. But when you play Tests, you have to flight the ball hoping that the batsman would take his chance. I worked on all these aspects,” he explained.

Kuldeep confessed that it was a special feeling to bag his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests. “It is a good feeling to take five wickets in Tests, it is important for any cricketer. This is one format which everyone wants to feature in. Red ball cricket is very close to my heart and I want to play red-ball cricket for long. In the second innings today, I only focused on the areas I wanted to land the ball, wasn't planning on giving it too much flight. I focused on accuracy rather than experiment too much," he said.