Coaches remember making of Team India player

Kanpur: Till recently, in every training session he would ask how he had performed and how could he improve. It is this quality of Kuldeep Yadav, who has been selected in Team India for ODI matches against the visiting West Indies team, that his UP Under-19 coach Ratnesh Mishra remembers and praises the most. “Kuldeep’s best quality is that he is a fast learner.Experience has made him cunning and he knows how to exploit the weakness of his opponents,” said Mishra, proud of his protégé’s achievement. “Since he is in the Indian squad he would be target of video analysts of various teams, so he has to keep working hard and consistently keep improving his skills,” said his coach.
Kuldeep’s first coach Kapil Pandey remembers the boy’s fascination for the legendary bowler Wasim Akram whom he wanted to emulate, being a left-arm bowler himself. Pandey said when Kuldeep came under his tutelage he was thin and fragile, but dreaming to be a left arm medium pacer. “His deliveries had swing but pace was missing as he was not stout,” said Pandey, adding that he had suggested him to switch to spin bowling.
Pandey recalled that Kuldeep’s first delivery as a spinner was a chinaman and he assessed that his success could be in the spin department. “So I asked him to bowl only spin,” said Pandey, adding “Kuldeep’s initial deliveries were flayed even by club batsmen as they could read his line and spin. Then I taught him to bowl googly, flipper and armor and asked him to work on line and length along with flight. Kuldeep worked hard and that labour is now paying off.”
Manish Mehrotra, Kuldeep’s school coach, shared that in the beginning he and Kapil had worked on him. “We never asked him to change his action. His action is natural and original”.
Mehrotra said that when Kuldeep was called the first time to the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore he was asked to change his action but Kapil and he asked him to continue with his natural style. “We had worked hard on Kuldeep’s wrist and fingers to conceal his googly and chinaman deliveries and Kuldeep responded as per our expectations. Now they were his lethal weapons,” said Mehrotra, in whose opinion Kuldeep is a fighter and eager to learn every moment.
Rishi Kumar, who has played with Kuldeep, stated that when Kapil Pandey asked him to bowl spin he was a bit annoyed as his dream was going to be a pace-bowler. “After a few days he started bowling spinners very welll. Kapil sir taught him googly, flipper and armour deliveries and that made him lethal,” said Rishi, adding that Kuldeep is his friend and they chat almost every day.
Faiz Ahmad, a close friend of Kuldeep’s who started playing cricket with him said Kuldeep had a knack for reading the batsman’s mind and that gives him an advantage.