Former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar has reckoned that next year’s IPL is going to be massive for Kuldeep Yadav, saying a good outing there will earn him a place in the T20 World Cup squad.
Kuldeep recently returned to India’s T20I squad for the West Indies series after a gap of nine months. He had last played the shorter format against New Zealand in February early this year.
“I’m a massive Kuldeep Yadav fan and in terms of strike rates you see he is the quickest to 100 ODI wickets and even in the shorter format, if you look at the match we won in England, he picked up five wickets at a time where the opposition was running away with the match,” Bangar told Star Sports.
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“I wouldn’t count out Kuldeep Yadav, it’s just that he has had a couple of poor games in the IPL last season. For him, this IPL is going to be a massive factor and if he does really well, it will be very hard to keep him out.”
Bangar also believed Ravndra Jadeja’s bowling prowess makes him a better option than Krunal Pandya in India’s World T20 squad.
“You require a wrist spinner in the T20 format, it has been a very major component in India’s success wherein two wrist spinners played a massive role in most of the one day’s and T20 series the team has had across conditions — hence you will need a bowler who is capable of bowling the complete four overs and also bat at No.7,” he said.
“Hence, I feel Ravindra Jadeja edges over Krunal Pandya here as Krunal hasn’t been able to complete four overs at times and Jadeja has been in great form recently.”
However, V.V.S. Laxman backs Washington Sundar to be part of India’s squad for next year’s T20 World Cup, ahead of Kuldeep.
“I would invest in Washington Sundar. With Sundar, the advantage is that he can bowl in the Powerplay and the tough overs. We have seen that and he can extract more bounce on the Australian wickets because the way he releases the ball, he can use the crease and in Australia it is not necessary you look to turn the ball, but you can vary the pace and extract the bounce and deceive the batsman.
“So, I would think it would be tough for Kuldeep currently, but you never know what happens just before the World Cup,” he added.
Kuldeep has played six Tests, 53 ODIs and 18 T20Is, grabbing more than 150 wickets across all formats.
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