Difficult to bowl Virat Kohli as he keeps bowlers under pressure, says Kuldeep Yadav

Though it is the Jamaican opener who has taken the IPL by storm with his swashbuckling heroics in four games which have seen Kings XI Punjab sit in the top half of the table in the first-half of the season, Kuldeep has stated that bowlers would find it more difficult to bowl to Kohli. Though the Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper has more runs than Gayle this season, as he played four more games than his former teammate, Bangalore have been struggling to win and with his innings getting rendered ineffective.

While Gayle has proved to be a nightmare for bowlers garnering 252 runs in four matches at an average of 126 and strike rate of 161.53, a more consistent Kohli has been clocking an average of 58.16 and strike rate of 138.19 to get to 349 runs in eight games. While the Punjab player would definitely seem more disastrous to any opponent, Kuldeep has picked Kohli to be a bigger challenge for bowlers.

“It really does not affect me who is batting against me but someone like Virat is a lot more difficult to bowl at as he will not let you bowl dot balls and besides hitting you for a four or six, will take twos and threes too. This creates pressure on the bowler. No doubt Chris Gayle is an impact player and dominates every bowler. He can hit you for a six or maybe a four but can't take singles and doubles. So there is always the option of bowling a dot ball to him and also taking a wicket," said Kuldeep in an interview with India Today.

On an individual note, Kuldeep hasn’t been that handy for KKR this season so far, scalping just seven wickets from eight games. KKR has been a spin-heavy side with the trio of Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep scalping 21 wickets so far. Kuldeep came to IPL after taking a whopping 17 wickets from six ODIs against South Africa but has been recovering from a finger injury.

"Personally, I am not that happy with myself. I wanted more wickets against my name at this stage of the tournament. But I am returning from an injury. It was difficult for me to perform straightaway after that finger injury. I feel good to get my rhythm back. Hopefully, I will do well in the coming games," he added.

IPL, however, has more such contenders with Rashid Khan and Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman also hogging much of the limelight. Complementing them, Kuldeep has pointed that a spinner always has to turn the ball and deceive batsmen with his flight as the mystery balls would eventually be figured out.

“They are mystery bowlers. Rashid has been doing well in the IPL since last season. Mujeeb too is difficult to pick with so many variations. But, at the end of the day and with so much of technology around, the mystery will be solved soon. If a bowler is getting the ball to turn and able to deceive in the flight then it is not a mystery, according to me. 

“Look at Shane Warne for instance, he had the turn, flight, used to beat the batsmen, so that wasn't a mystery but quality bowling. If one is a quality bowler, he will always survive in every condition and situation," Kuldeep said.