Picture Credit: AP
Indian's spinning woes have once again starting to haunt the Men in Blue. While the duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal won India many games, ever since the two have not been able to fit in the team together, their form has also started to dip.
Chahal has now spoken about the turn of events that led to KulCha, which the duo is popularly called, not finding a place in the XI together. He stated that Hardik Pandya’s injury and Ravindra Jadeja’s comeback to the limited-overs set-up made it almost impossible for him and Kuldeep Yadav to play together.
Things could have been different if Hardik was replaced by a pacer: Yuzi
"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 told Sports Tak.
Chahal added that things could have different had Hardik been replaced by a pace-bowling option but since Jaddu provided a spinning option only one of Chahar or Kuldeep could now fit in.
"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.
Happy as long as the team wins: Chahal
The 30-year-old said that he is equally happy by sitting out and waiting for his turn as long as the team keeps on winning.
"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 travelling 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," Chahal explained.