Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav said skipper Rohit Sharma helped him improve his batting skills during the five-match Test series against England at home from January to March this year. Kuldeep was speaking at a press event in Delhi ahead of his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise's Delhi Capitals (DC) match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. In India's 4-1 win over England at home, Kuldeep played a very valuable role, not only with the ball as expected, but surprisingly with the bat as well. Not only did he take 19 wickets in four matches, including a five-wicket haul, but he also scored 97 runs in six innings at an average of 19.40, with the best score of 30. breaking the match for India. With solid defense he would keep his swing steady and allow the other batter to attack in the hunt for a match-saving total or a match-winning target.
Also, during his side's IPL match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens on May 29, Kuldeep scored a valuable 35* in 26 balls with five fours and a six, taking his team to a respectable total of 153/9 . Although DC lost the match, Kuldeep scored the highest score for his side and added another feather to his growing reputation as a capable batsman.
During the event, Kuldeep said that Rohit doesn't talk to him much about his bowling as he plays his role. However, Rohit was concerned about his batting and helped him get better at it by speaking about the nuances of discipline during nets.
“Rohit bhai doesn't talk to me much about bowling because I do what he wants from me with the ball,” Kuldeep said. “He was concerned about my batting. He said I need to improve my batting. I worked on it during the Test series against England [at home earlier this year] and he was impressed with my hard work. He was always with me in the nets and talked to me about the nuances of batting. This has helped me a lot and now I enjoy my batting as much as my bowling,” said Kuldeep.
Coming to the IPL, DC will take on RR at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday. Delhi (10 points) is in sixth place on the season with five wins and six losses. RR are in second place, with eight wins and two losses, giving them 16 points. DC lost their previous match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven wickets, while RR lost that against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Selection of the capitals of Delhi:Prithvi Shaw, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant (w/c), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Rasikh Dar Salam, Lizaad Williams, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Sumit Kumar, Praveen Dubey, Kumar Kushagra, Ricky Bhui, Ishant Sharma, David Warner, Gulbadin Naib, Jhye Richardson, Anrich Nortje, Lalit Yadav, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal, Swastik Chikara
Rajasthan Royals squad:Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma, Jos Buttler, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Tanush Kotian, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Kuldeep Sen, Donovan Ferreira, Abid Mushtaq, Kunal Singh Rathore.
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