KKR destroyed Kuldeep Yadav: Kris Srikkanth says as Kuldeep takes three-wicket haul
It was in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup that Kuldeep Yadav caught everybody’s attention. Soon after, he was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for INR 40 lakh in the IPL auction for the 2014 season.
In eight seasons, the chinaman has played a mere 45 matches in the IPL. Yadav didn’t play a single game in his first two seasons and only made his IPL debut in the 2016 edition. He featured in just three fixtures in 2016 but played a major chunk of the games for KKR in 2017 and 2018. He took 29 wickets from 28 games in this period.
However, his form dipped in 2019 and he played just nine games, returning with four wickets. In 2020, Yadav featured in five games and was completely benched in 2021. Varun Chakravarthy was preferred over Kuldeep in the last two years and eventually, KKR let go of the Kanpur-born chinaman spinner ahead of the 2022 season.
WATCH: The costly Deepti Sharma no-ball in the Women’s World Cup game vs SA
Former India opener Kris Srikkanth felt that KKR destroyed Kuldeep Yadav. He feels that things would’ve been very different if he would’ve played under someone like MS Dhoni.
“KKR destroyed Kuldeep Yadav. They destroyed him. Under someone like MS Dhoni, it would have been very different,” Kris Srikkanth was quoted saying on Star Sports Tamil ahead of the clash between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Delhi Capitals (DC).
Kuldeep was bought by Delhi in the IPL auction for the 2022 season for a sum of INR 2 crore. And he has started this season on a very good note as well. The 27-year-old was the one who got crucial breakthroughs throughout the innings.
He bowled the seventh over of the innings and conceded just three runs, applying brakes to the high-flying start that MI got. The chinaman spinner got rid of the MI skipper Rohit Sharma in his second over. He then troubled Anmolpreet Singh throughout before dismissing him in his third over and got the big wicket of Kieron Pollard in his final over. He finished with figures of 3/16.
This is an excellent start for Kuldeep. He has been in and out of the Indian side across formats as well recently. In fact, he has played just nine international games since the start of 2021 and the count is 16 since the start of 2020. Hence, this could well be a defining IPL for him as he looks to get his career back on track.