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There are plenty of ups and downs in the life of a sportsperson. However, none is more difficult than dealing with one's ouster from the national team. After a poor last six months in the cricketing arena which saw his problems getting bad to worse, Kuldeep Yadav has opened up on what he thinks went wrong. Notably, the 26-year-old hasn't even been named in the squad set to travel to United Kingdom for the ICC World Test Championship final and the following five-match Test series against England.
The left-arm chinaman bowler, who could not even find a place in the Kolkata Knight Riders XI in IPL 2021, revealed that he was a bit shocked and pretty low on self-confidence. He admitted to having questioned himself and doubting his own ability.
I should have been there playing: Kuldeep
"I did (doubt myself), sometimes I felt, ‘what is going on?’. It was difficult times. Sometimes, the mind says, ‘ab shayad woh Kuldeep nahi rahe’ (Perhaps, I am not the same Kuldeep). Sometimes I feel, ‘no, I am still the same’ and I wait for the opportunity," he told the Indian Express.
"There were days when you feel serving drinks and being on the bench is for the best – yaar yeh to best seat hai apne liye – and then but there are days you don’t want to be in that place. I would think, I should have been there playing. I tried to motivate myself every time. I try to be happy and feel that I am bowling well. There was self-doubt somewhere. It happens with everyone, I started questioning myself," he added.
Talking about not being picked in the squad, Kuldeep said that he did have a word with senior players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and even head coach Ravi Shastri. "They motivated me but the team combination was such that I wasn’t getting in," he said.
Meanwhile, Kuldeep is determined to work on his bowling and improve his batting to come back stronger. "The more I play the better I will be again," he signed off.
