Kuldeep Yadav's poor IPL show won't impact World Cup performance: Harbhajan Singh

Bhajji says IPL will not impact the chinaman bowler's confidence

Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, India's premier spinners at the upcoming World Cup have been polishing skills in the ongoing IPL. The duo is the highest wicket taking pair in ODIs after the 2017 Champions Trophy. While Chahal has been performing exceedingly well with 14 scalps in 10 games his partner has had a torrid run.

Moeen Ali recently blasted 24 runs off Kuldeep's bowling and the wrist spinner looked visibly shaken after that assault. But veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh feels that experts should not be concerned about Kuldeep's form.

"There is no doubt that Kuldeep is going through a rough patch in [the] IPL. T20 is a format which can destroy the confidence of any bowler but let's not compare formats. One-day [match] is a different ball game and you will see a very different Kuldeep," Harbhajan told a news agency.

"I have watched a bit of his bowling and I don't think there are any technical problems. And please check who all are hitting Kuldeep. The Indian guys are primarily hitting him. Virat [Kohli] in two games, Mayank [Agarwal], Mandy [Mandeep Singh], Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, [and] Shikhar Dhawan. Leave aside Virat, who is in a different league; all these guys are competent players of spin bowling."

"They read Kuldeep's wrists much better than foreign batsmen. So in [the] World Cup, Kuldeep will be bowling mostly to those who are still not reading him well. I think you will see a different Kuldeep," Harbhajan said. The CSK bowler also said Kuldeep needs to aim for better synergy with captain Kohli if he feels he is getting hammered even after trying different plans.

"He may get hit but in the middle overs, the skipper will pack one side of the field, whether it's inside [the] 30-yard circle or outside. Even if he is hit for two fours, he can come back with figures of 3 for 50 or 2 for 45 on most days. And that's decent figures. In ODIs, you have to be a real bad bowler to go for 75-80 runs every day."

Earlier in an interview Kuldeep on the question of batsman finding it easy to play him after exposure said "You can't say that it becomes easy for a batsman once he's played me a few times because I'm not some mystery bowler. I don't consider myself a mystery bowler. I have played against all teams, and it's not that only the opponent should do well or you should do well. It's all about how you're bowling that day".