Your Time Will Come, Just Keep Working Hard: Ajinkya Rahane's Word Of Encouragement For Kuldeep Yadav

The 2020/21 India tour of Australia proved to be a historic one for Men in Blue for more than one reason. Not only did the Ajinkya Rahane-led visitors staged a comeback for the ages against all odds to script consecutive Test series win Down Under but they also unearthed a plethora of young talent.

The likes of Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur, and Navdeep Saini made full use of the opportunity, displaying their talent as well as their temperament to the hilt.

But if there is one youngster, who would be hugely disappointed with the manner in which the tour panned out for him personally, it has got to be wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav.

Once hailed by head coach Ravi Shastri as India’s No.1 spinner in overseas conditions, Kuldeep did not get a single opportunity to play in the Test series even when the premier spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were ruled out of the last Test due to their respective injuries. India went in with rookie Washington Sundar because of his all-round skills and the Tamil Nadu off-spinner justified his talent by claiming four crucial wickets and a match-defining half-century in the first innings.

Sensing that Kuldeep would be feeling dejected at not being given a chance, skipper Ajinkya Rahane, during his post-match speech in the dressing room, uttered words of encouragement for the talented leg-spinner, urging him to keep working hard besides stating his time will come soon.

Rahane also heaped praise on Kartik Tyagi for the attitude that he displayed in his capacity as a net bowler throughout the tour.

“Just want to mention Kuldeep(Yadav) and Kartik(Tyagi). Kuldeep it was tough for you. You (Kuldeep) didn’t play a game here but your attitude was really good. We are going to India now, your time will come. You just keep working hard,” Ajinkya Rahane was heard saying in a video posted by BCCI.

As we draw curtains on our historic triumph and start our preparations for the home series, here’s Captain @ajinkyarahane88‘s address to #TeamIndia from the Gabba dressing room.

Full ?https://t.co/Sh2tkR5c7j pic.twitter.com/l7wr6UXSxq

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 23, 2021

Rahane also went on to hail the entire Indian contingent for their stellar contribution which ultimately paved way for a historic series win Down Under.

“This is a massive massive moment for all of us. I think the way we came back from Adelaide it was really good to see. I mean…that was..ek do nahi, matlab sabne pura effort diya. Everybody avtually got it today and that was really good,” the skipper added.