India spinner Kuldeep Yadav feels that he still needs to learn from his “senior partner” Yuzvendra Chahal on how to plan for a dismissal.
Yadav, after a poor outing in the Indian Premier League, was back in rhythm during the opening game against South Africa. He got JP Duminy’s wicket and bowled well in tandem with Chahal.
Asked what he has learnt from Chahal, Kuldeep said: “He is more experienced than me. He has a very good idea of how to bowl to a certain batsman and I need to learn from him,” Yadav told reporters following India’s win over South Africa in their World Cup opener.
“I am feeling good about how the ball is coming out of my hand. Chahal and I could execute the plan we had chalked out against South Africa. We checked the flow of runs in the middle overs and also picked wickets,” the left-arm wrist spinner said.
Yadav had only four wickets from nine games for Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2019 IPL and went back to the drawing board with his childhood coach Kapil Dev Pandey.
“T20 is different from ODI and after IPL got over, I went back to my coach, practised for 10 days and fixed the problems. I needed to get back to my basics,” the 24-year-old said.
With bounce being his primary weapon, he worked on altering pace on his deliveries. “I needed to be back at my best in a big event and I mixed pace with variation. In England, the wickets will be flat and there won’t be too much help from the wicket. So we need to alter the pace of our deliveries and use it as a variation,” Yadav said.
Last year, his career-best six-wicket haul came against England in Nottingham and he fancies doing well once again. “I have always had good performances abroad as I rely on bounce off the pitch. Batsmen don’t go on back foot and you always are in with a chance if they are coming forward.”