After the Hamilton ODI, there is a big question about the fitness of Kuldeep Yadav. While the Indian fielding coach R Sridhar has confirmed that Kuldeep is totally fit, he has also pointed out why the youngster is struggling in the present days.
Around a year ago, the Indian Head Coach Ravi Shastri claimed that the left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav was their number one spinner in the overseas condition. But his form has continuously fallen, and he has lost his regular place from the limited-overs sides. The 25-year-old is still fighting hard to get back his old form.
In the last ODI against the hosts New Zealand at Hamilton, while the Indian team failed to defend their first innings total of 347 runs, Kuldeep had the expensive bowling figures of 10-0-84-2. He also missed a catch of Ross Taylor who safely guided the hosts to the victory with an unbeaten firing century.
Later, some media reports were claiming that Kuldeep Yadav had a shoulder injury from the beginning of this New Zealand tour. That news has become stronger due to his missing out all the five T20Is in this tour.
Kuldeep Yadav is fully fit and he is not carrying any injury: R Sridhar
However, the fielding coach R Sridhar has totally dismissed those reports. Sridhar also believes that Kuldeep Yadav needs to deliver a lot of overs to get back his rhythm.
Sridhar told the media, “He is fully fit and he is not carrying any injury. He is totally cleared to play all the games. He has played a lot of ODI cricket, played all three games against Australia. He didn’t play the T20Is as Chahal was there. Maybe Kuldeep is the kind of guy who needs a lot of overs under his belt to get his rhythm.
“Typical leg-spinner thing, I would suppose with a lot of overs under the belt. On and off, he is playing the odd one-day game. I think he is a good bowler and he has got all his skills. I think the New Zealand batters played him really well.”
After losing the ODI series-opener, the visitors India will play the second game of this series on this Saturday (8th February) at Eden Park (Auckland). India can’t afford another defeat in this series, and they have to win both the remaining matches to win this series.
In the last two ODI series, India won after losing the first game. So, the second-ranked ODI side is not out of the contest yet.