Kuldeep: 'Bowlers must show more courage' against aggressive batting

Though there has been some respite for bowlers of late, with pitches slowing down somewhat and the frequency of 200-plus totals going down along with it, IPL 2024 has been about big hitting and record team totals. And the impact player rule is one of the reasons for it. For Kuldeep Yadav, though, faced with such "non-stop hitting", bowlers must show courage and remember that they "have more chances of taking wickets".

"Every team is now trying to attack in the powerplay and score as many runs as possible," Kuldeep said at a press event in Delhi recently. "It slows down a bit in the middle overs because of the open field, so the batters are playing more freely in the powerplay. Those days are gone when teams used to target 45-50 runs in the powerplay. But I think the bowlers must show more courage. If a batter goes for the attack, then a bowler also has more chances of taking wickets.

"I feel that the bowlers are trying more to read the batters' mind instead of sticking to their strengths. They are trying to bowl where the batter looks a little weak. But I think a bowler should understand his strengths and back his strengths. You can see Jasprit Bumrah, who backs his strengths. The way he bowls, any batter is on the back foot. He dominates the batters mentally. All these things become very important."

Bumrah, of course, has been one of the rare exceptions this season, a bowler who has not only picked up wickets - he is the joint-highest wicket-taker at this stage with 17 wickets - but has also been tough to score off - his economy rate of 6.25 is the best of all frontline bowlers.

Kuldeep himself is lower on both the tables, with 12 wickets from eight bowling innings and an economy rate of 8.45, but has been impressive on the whole. And a good example of what he is talking about came in Delhi Capitals' game against Sunrisers Hyderabad - the team that broke and then rebroke the record for the highest IPL total this season - in Delhi on April 20. Kuldeep conceded 55 runs in SRH's 266 for 7, but came back with four wickets, those of Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy.

"If you are not confident then you will be in a defensive mindset," he said. "On the other hand, if you are confident, then you are ready to bowl even in the powerplay. I am now ready for all the challenges and always look to take wickets. My self-confidence has increased, and I have a lot of faith in my skills. I see how the batter is batting and how I have to bowl to him. I think where should I bowl to him so that he has a little difficulty in hitting.

"Sometimes you can get hit even on good balls, like it happened to me during the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. [Heinrich] Klaasen and Abhishek hit sixes on good balls. But I believed in my skills, and I also got wickets that day. Now I enjoy my bowling more and I have learned all this from experience."

So far this season, Kuldeep has bowled just one over in the powerplay, for 20 runs. At the death (overs 17-20) too, he has bowled only three overs, giving away 33 runs. It's in the middle phase that he has been used the most and has been most effective: 27 overs for 11 wickets, with an economy rate of 7.85.

He is expected to be one of the players Rohit Sharma and the team management depend on during the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA come June. And in a team without many allrounders, Kuldeep is hoping to pull his weight with the bat too. It's something he has been working on, and he showed glimpses of ability in DC's last game, when he scored 35 not out in 26 balls with five fours and a six against Kolkata Knight Riders.

"Rohit bhai does not talk to me much about bowling because I am doing what he wants from me with the ball," Kuldeep said. "He was concerned about my batting. He told me to improve my batting. I worked on it during the Test series against England [at home earlier this year] and he was impressed by my hard work. He used to be with me in the nets and speak to me about the nuances of batting. This helped me a lot and now I am enjoying my batting as much as my bowling."