Kuldeep Yadav has opened up about being sidelined throughout the entire Test series against England. The left-arm spinner revealed that while he felt capable of playing in some matches, the team management prioritized adding more batting depth to the playing XI, which kept him out of the games. Kuldeep had clear communication with head coach Gautam Gambhir about his role in the squad. 

He explained, “Sometimes, in 3-4 matches, I felt that I could play, but unfortunately, I couldn’t play because they wanted batting depth. The communication was very clear. I feel that that is a very important thing. Gauti’s was very straightforward. Sometimes, I felt that I could play, but as you know, because of the batting depth, I couldn’t. But it was nothing about skill or batting. I couldn’t make a place because of the conditions or the combination.”

Reflects On Absence

Kuldeep also reflected on the challenges of not playing regularly and how it affected his bowling rhythm. He emphasized the importance of maintaining rhythm through consistent games and how his time off the field was used to work on fitness and increase bowling workload. He shared, “Challenges are there because when you play your first game after a while, your rhythm is very important. If you play regular games, your rhythm is set. You have an idea of bowling or you have an idea of spending time in the field, how you are reacting on the field. It was a very good time for me to work on myself, to improve my fitness and to give more volume to bowling because it is very important. I learned a lot.”

Kuldeep added that observing the team from the sidelines provided valuable learning opportunities, allowing him to understand how to react in different situations. “As a player, you learn a lot when you don’t play. When the team reacts to situations, you can judge from the outside. You have a lot of ideas about what you would do, how you’d react if you were in this situation. I got a lot of ideas from there,” he stated.

India is set to conclude their group stage in the Asia Cup with a match against Oman on September 19, followed by a Super 4 stage clash against Pakistan on September 21.

Squads

India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson(w), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jitesh Sharma, Rinku Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana

Oman: Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh(c), Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla(w), Wasim Ali, Hassnain Shah, Shah Faisal, Jiten Ramanandi, Aryan Bisht, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava, Mohammad Nadeem, Sufyan Mehmood, Karan Sonavale, Ashish Odedara, Mohammad Imran, Zikria Islam, Nadeem Khan, Sufyan Yousaf