Keen Learner: Kuldeep Yadav, who wanted to become a fast bowler as a child, has been making good strides since his switch to chinaman bowling. PTI
When a 10-year-old Kuldeep Yadav arrived at the cricket academy of coach Kapil Pandey in Kanpur, he nursed the dreams of emulating Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram. Pandey, however, found his frail built unsuitable for fast bowling and veered him towards spin. And thus began the journey of an Indian chinaman bowler, a rarity in the land of spin.
Incidentally, most chinaman bowlers have come from Australia, a side which incidentally was at the receiving end of Kuldeep's exploits on Saturday. In fact, Kuldeep is the first left-arm chinaman to play a Test for India and is only the second from the sub-continent after Sri Lanka’s Lakshan Sandakan.
“He came to me with his father as a 10-year-old and continues to be with us. He told me I want to become Wasim Akram. But he was very thin and had a small built. I told him becoming Akram is not possible for you, but becoming a spinner is an option,” Pandey told Deccan Herald.
“I expected him to bowl left-arm spin but the first ball he bowled was a chinaman. He was a natural.”
To young Kuldeep, it took a while to break away from his fantasy of bowling like Akram. But once he did and grasped his potential as a chinaman, there was no looking back. He performed well in the age-group cricket and gave confidence to Pandey to teach him several variations.
“I began teaching him variations from an early stage, be it googly, flipper, chinaman. Many coaches at that time didn’t agree with the method. They felt it was not right to introduce variations so early. But I believe if a bowler grasps them early, the better. Today you could see the variations he has in his bowling which sets him apart.”
The readiness of Kuldeep, whose father Ram Singh is a brick manufacturer, to take on the challenges is what Pandey believes is his strength. “I remember when he was merely 12, he developed a back pain. I told him to take rest for some days.
But he would keep coming back. The resilience in the 12 year-old was heartening. He is mentally very strong,” said Pandey.
Kuldeep was in the Indian under-19 team for the World Cup in 2014 where he took a hat-trick against Scotland. He has represented Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. He was also included in India's ODI squad for the series against West Indies in October 2014 and made his first-class and List A debuts shortly. Kuldeep was in the one-off Test squad against Bangladesh in February.
In his 22 first-class matches, Kuldeep has taken 81 wickets and scored 723 runs, including a century. In the 2016-2017 season, he had taken 35 wickets for Uttar Pradesh.