Axar Patel is of the view that the reason why the wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has found his feet at Delhi Capitals straightaway and put on a match winning performance in his debut game for the franchise against Mumbai Indians is because he has got the security of his place at Delhi Capitals, unlike his previous franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) where he was not sure whether he would play all the matches or not.
The Delhi Capitals management decided to include Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI in the very first match against Mumbai Indians and Kuldeep got three crucial wickets in his 4 overs which ensured that Mumbai were not able to put an overpar score on the board and the total that they posted was eventually chased down by Delhi Capitals as they won the match by 6 wickets.
Axar Patel himself played a key role in the chase as he scored 30 odd runs batting at no. 8 and took the Mumbai Indians attack to the cleaners at a stage when the game was evenly poised. Speaking after the game, Axar reflected on the overall performance of the team and he revealed that Kuldeep has been given security by the team management that he would play games on a regular basis.
A player performs well when he is secure of his place: Axar Patel
According to Axar, when a player is worried what happens if he doesn’t perform in a couple of games, it’s hard for him to focus in that kind of a scenario, but when he has the security that he will be given a long rope, he can then focus on his performance and be at his best, which is what one can see with Kuldeep at the moment, as he is totally secure about his place in the Delhi Capitals side and is bowling at his best.
Kuldeep Yadav had not played too many games for his previous franchise KKR in the last two seasons of the IPL and had been warming the bench most of the time.
