Holding the microphone, Kuldeep grinned and sound-checked: “Ready 1,2,3… ” And smiled impishly, reflecting his buoyant mood in the tournament. Two games, seven wickets; average of 3.57; economy rate of 4.05, a wicket every fifth ball; man of the match in both of India’s games in the tournament. After the two-month-long dressing-room suffocation, the hot and humid Dubai has been like a breath of fresh air for him.
But a harsh self-critic, he quipped when asked whether he felt he was bowling at the peak of his T20 prowess. “Who told you I am happy with my bowling?” he asked, before he dwelled on the pitfalls of self-contentment. I don’t feel that I am bowling that well, I feel that I can improve and become better. I keep making chotti chotti mistakes. I feel I can become better because sometimes you make a mistake in reading the batsman in this format. The margin for error is too little. When you are at the top of the game and you make small mistakes, you don’t notice it, but you feel that you have made a mistake.”
He specified the feeling he gets when the ball leaves his hand. “It is important to know how the ball is going from your hand and whether you are happy with it or not. Only you can be the best judge and I feel that there is a need to work more on that,” he said. Later, he was asked to describe that contended feeling when the ball leaves his hands. “Mein aapko kyu bathoonga?” he asked. Then he contemplated for a moment and elaborated? “Mujhe kaisa feel hoga?” he muttered to himself and replied: “When you bowl, you rate the batsmen.” The implication was that he judges himself on how well he has bowled against a good batsman. By good batsmen, he explained, he doesn’t mean specialist batsmen with towering numbers. He brings up the name of Shaheen Shah Afridi’s name. He has looked Pakistan’s most natural hitter in this tournament.
India’s Kuldeep Yadav, second right, celebrate the wicket of United Arab Emirates’s Rahul Chopra during the Asia Cup Cricket match between United Arab Emirates and India at Dubai International Cricket stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
“He has been playing well in the last two matches. Bahut tudai khelte hain! Sometimes, you make small mistakes.” He then goes philosophical: “The game is such that you learn even if you fail. Not every game is perfect for you. Not every game is a failure for you.”
There were times in the interaction when the disappointment of not playing a single Test in the England series surfaced. Like when he said, he could “have played 3-4Tests” and he thought he “would be playing in a Test.” But he asserts that there was clear communication from the team management, about the “the conditions and combinations” that conspired against him. He gleaned lessons from his dressing-room perch. “If you don’t play, you learn a lot and you become a better player. When the team reacts to situations, you can judge from the outside and you get a lot of ideas on how to react and how to bowl.” He admitted it was tough to sit inside, but he did not brood about his fate. “You have to think about where you are weak and work on those.” He worked on his fitness and put in an incredible amount of bowling volume in the nets. So that he was in his rhythm whether he was playing a Test or not. Coming to the Asia Cup, it was about how to use the small angles, how he finishes his run-up and whether his body weight is transferring smoothly during the release.
His passion for football and his obsession with analysing the sport helped him during the frustrating period. “If you follow other sports, you get to know how it feels when the team is performing really well. You see, the best teams are so strong that they have 15-20 players who can start any game. You see how they play against the small teams, how they react, the communication and the final decision-making is so quick. I love to watch them, admire them, watch their communication and connection between them, and how they lift each other.”
A similar strand of connection binds him and his spin colleagues, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel. Both have bowled splendidly without statistical rewards. Kuldeep explains their chemistry. “It is simple,” he said. “Everyone knows his job and my job is to take wickets in the middle overs. Axar bowls in the powerplay and he does the controlling job for us. We three are experienced in the T20 format and understand the roles. Their inputs have helped me or anyone who is bowling in the middle. Whether it’s Axar or Varun, or whoever is bowling, will offer inputs about the pitch.”
