Kuldeep Yadav Opens Up On Competition With Yuzvendra Chahal

The competition for spinner’s slot in the Indian team has always been very high. The country has traditionally produced world-class bowlers on a regular basis and with limited slots available in the national team, the competition has always been cut-throat.

The fact that a spinner of the calibre of Ravichandran Ashwin has not played any ODI or T20I since 2017 pretty much proves the point. But there is no such competition between India spin stars Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. As both the spinners gear up to represent their respective teams in the upcoming IPL, Kuldeep Yadav has insisted that there is no competition between him and his spin partner.

Both the spinners have been an integral part of the team since 2017 when they replaced Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja from the T20I and ODI teams. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength. They are a force to reckon with and are arguably the most potent spin pair in international cricket at present.

But surprisingly, they have been rarely included together in the playing eleven. In the recent past, the team has preferred only one of them at a time in the playing eleven. The decision is really baffling because of the way Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal had performed together.

They have played 34 ODI together and scalped 65 wickets at an average of 22.73. Despite these good numbers, India haven’t played them together in an ODI since their ICC World Cup 2019 group stage clash against England.

Even in T20Is, they boast a good record and have scalped 22 wickets in 10 matches. However, Kuldeep Yadav and Chahal haven’t featured together in an India XI in the shortest format since July 2018. But despite all this, Kuldeep Yadav has insisted there is no competition between him and Chahal and also opened up on how the latter takes care of him.

“He has always taken care of me, like an elder brother. Even now, after playing so many matches together, even off the field, he gives me advice on cricket as well as off cricket. He supports me, and this bond is visible on the field as well. We’ve never had competition between us, irrespective of which of us gets picked to play,” Kuldeep Yadav told the RCB website.

Kuldeep Yadav will soon play for Kolkata Knight Riders while Chahal will turn up for Royal Challengers Bangalore. IPL 2020 is scheduled to start from September 19.

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