NEWS
Follow UsIndia leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal opened up about why he and Kuldeep Yadav have not been playing together. When the duo played together, mostly since 2017, Hardik Pandya bowled quite a bit. But with Hardik now unable to bowl, and Ravindra Jadeja coming in as an all-rounder, who can bat at No. 7, the chances of 'KulCha' combining seems bleak as it would be unwise to field three spinners in the side.
“When I and Kuldeep Yadav were playing, Hardik Pandya was also bowling quite a bit. Then, in 2018, Hardik got injured and Jaddu pa (Ravindra Jadeja) came in as an all-rounder, who can bat at number seven. So, after that, if we had to play an extra bowler, the combination wasn’t working out. Since Jadeja is a spinner, I and Kuldeep couldn’t play together continuously after that,” Chahal said in a conversation with Sports Tak.
“If a pacer had come in instead of Hardik, maybe we could have played together. But the team demands come first. We did play half of the games individually. Like out of six games, I played three and Kuldeep played three. But a team is built with 11 players and KulCha wasn’t fitting into it,” he added.
The leggie further added that he is happy to sit out during matches as long as India wins. “Even if I am not playing and the team wins, I am equally happy. I played one-dayers in New Zealand last year after six months. But I was confident since I was bowling well in the nets and was traveling with the team as well. I was never made to feel that I was not part of the team even when I was not playing. So all that helps keep your confidence intact," he concluded.
Chahal and Kuldeep have played 34 ODIs 10 T20Is together for India, picking up 161 wickets between them across both formats.