India’s spinner Kuldeep Yadav admitted he was a bit nervous in the first two overs against Bangladesh while bowling on the second day’s play at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chhatogram on Thursday. However, the chinaman spinner feels he gained momentum after settling into his groove.
Yadav bowled at his best as he took 4-33 to reduce the Tigers to 133-8. The left-arm spinner accounted for Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Nurul Hasan, and Taijul Islam to put India in front at the stumps on Day 2.
The Uttar Pradesh spinner got help from the surface and he was able to make the most of the favorable conditions.
Speaking after the second day’s play, Kuldeep Yadav said while talking to the official broadcaster, “Of course, I was a bit nervous in the first two overs, was a bit lucky to get the first wicket of the first over and brought the momentum back to our side. After a couple of overs, I settled in, tried to mix the pace and variation, tried to bowl from over the wicket and around the wicket, getting proper turn and was loving it in the middle.”
Kuldeep also revealed how he made changes to his bowling after recovering from injury. He said, “Not much with the action, been a year, I started off my journey after the injury, tried to be quicker with the air, tried to get the rhythm on my side, the pace if helping me a lot, not compromising the spin, just working on my rhythm.”
Meanwhile, earlier on Day 2, Kuldeep scored 40 runs – his highest in Test cricket. Yadav looked comfortable at the crease and added 92 runs with Ravichandran Ashwin to strengthen India’s position in the game. The 28-year-old felt there wasn’t much help for the spinners when he was batting unperturbed at the crease.
“When I was batting I thought there was no turn on offer for the spinners, thought it will be good for batting against the spinners, of course being a wrist spinner, bowling in these type of surface with the kookaburra ball, definitely gets the turn, and bounce.”
Kuldeep Yadav was at his best for India and he would want to continue the good show in the rest of the Test match.
