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Picture Credit: BCCI

Delhi Capitals’ spinner Kuldeep Yadav is having a brilliant IPL 2022 with the ball. The left-arm leg-spinner, who struggled to find a place in the KKR side in the last season, is thriving under DC. He has picked 17 wickets in nine games for the franchise and is second in the Purple cap race.

While Kuldeep's comeback has been lauded by cricket fans and pundits, his childhood coach Kapil Dev Pandey credited Indian skipper Rohit Sharma for the change in leg spinner’s career. Pandey claimed that Rohit “protected” Kuldeep’s career when the latter was going through a tough phase.

Pandey revealed that it was the present Indian skipper who called Kuldeep for the T20I series against West Indies and gave him a game before IPL 2022.

"Kuldeep's career is protected because of Rohit Sharma. Rohit is the man behind Kuldeep's resurgence. He is a fantastic captain, and he knows how to find talent in a big group of players. Ahead of the IPL, Rohit called Kuldeep and gave him the chance. Kuldeep delivered too by taking two wickets," Pandey told TOI.

Virat went with experience: Kuldeep’s childhood coach

Dev Pandey also talked about former Indian skipper Virat Kohli and said that the latter preferred the experienced duo of Ashwin and Jadeja over Kuldeep. Pandey also revealed that Kohli picked Axar Patel over Kuldeep due to the former’s batting capability.

"Every captain has their own style of captaining and picking players. Kuldeep played a lot of cricket under Virat. Virat wants experience in the side. He went with Ashwin and Jadeja. He preferred Axar ahead of Kuldeep because of Axar's batting capabilities. A captain has to trust his players," Pandey quoted.