Seasoned spinner Kuldeep Yadav last appeared for India in the 1st ODI against New Zealand in Hamilton and had bowling figures of 2/84. He wasn’t selected for the rest of the series after which the coronavirus-induced pandemic took over. As the lockdown restrictions eased down in the second week of June, Kuldeep resumed his training at the Rovers club in Kanpur. He started off with spending 4 hours daily in his training.

“We’ve the best club team in Kanpur. Many of our players play for Uttar Pradesh’s under-23 and under-19 team and one (Faiz Ahmed) plays for Railways in the Ranji Trophy. They divide themselves amongst two teams and play practice games. How long will we be scared of Covid? We have to beat it,” he added.

“They came to practice here 8-10 days back. They practiced for 4-5 days. Sarfaraz and his brother Musheer Khan batted against Kuldeep and other bowlers at our academy. For Musheer especially it was good practice because a left-hander generally finds it tough to face a chinaman bowler. Both the brothers are highly talented God willing, should go on to play for India. It was nice to get a chance to teach them something and motivate them,” Kuldeep’s coach Kapil Pandey told TOI.