R Ashwin defended the India spinner, who was criticised for his bowling during the recently-concluded 2025 Champions Trophy.
Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin has come to the defence of spinner Kuldeep Yadav, claiming that it is wrong to criticise him. Former wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik was one of those who were critical of Kuldeep, saying that the latter has not had a memorable Champions Trophy 2025 campaign.
Notably, Kuldeep had failed to take a wicket in the semi-final against Australia. However, he bounced back with figures of 2/40 in the final against New Zealand.
“My dear friend Dinesh Karthik said during commentary that ‘Kuldeep Yadav has not had one of his best tournaments’, and I was like that is so cruel. Not on Dinesh Karthik. Someone bowling like Varun Chakaravarthy is taking wickets and is being used well by Rohit Sharma, and he is bowling well no doubt, but that does not take away from the fact that Kuldeep Yadav is not bowling really well,” Ashwin said during a show on his YouTube channel.
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Ashwin added that because of special individual awards and stats, players like Kuldeep don’t get recognised often.
“Sometimes what happens is that, after the match, we celebrate by giving awards like RO Water Purifier match winner or other stuff like that. With this what happens is that other performances go under the radar. Like Kuldeep Yadav did not pick any wickets in the semis, and he many people went after him saying that he does not lift his game up in big games and all that. Please watch his bowling before saying all of that,” he continued.
Ashwin also made some comparisons with the impact that players created on the field. He believes that numbers don’t always define a player’s worth. Later, Ashwin also suggested something that Kuldeep needs to work on.
“Can you say that KL Rahul or Hardik Pandya did not have a good tournament because they did not score a heap load of runs? Can you say that Ravindra Jadeja has not had a good tournament? If he had not picked up wickets, people would have said that he did not have such a good tournament. Actually, he has bowled fantastically well. The one thing I notice about Kuldeep Yadav is that he should return to the stumps after delivering the ball. In the last match, he copped abuse from Virat and Rohit, and even today he did not come close to the stumps during a run-out chance. Please come to the stumps from now on Kuldeep, that is my only complaint,” explained Ashwin.
Renowned cricket journalist Vimal Kumar was also part of the discussion. He read out a message from Kuldeep Yadav, who said he missed Ashwin’s guidance immensely. Ashwin retired from international cricket after the Brisbane Test against Australia late in 2024.
“Ash bhai should not have gone from Test matches, I miss his guidance a lot,” Kuldeep said. To which, Ashwin replied: “My guidance will always be there for Kuldeep. He actually messaged me after I retired, actually a voice note. I responded to it like a week or ten days later where I said that until now I was holding your place in the Test team, from now on you can play bindaas (carefree).”
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