5 Players who owe their success to Virat Kohli

2. Kuldeep Yadav

Kuldeep Yadav had won Virat Kohli’s confidence on his debut match itself. He picked up four wickets against a challenging Australian batting line up in the first innings where he had also become India’s first-ever chinaman spinner. His performance in the red-ball cricket did not get unnoticed and Kohli soon handed him his limited-overs debut.

Under Kohli, Kuldeep, alongside Yuzvendra Chahal, emerged as India’s premier spinners and sidelined the famed duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Such was the brilliance of Kuldeep that he finished 2017 as the fourth-highest wicket-taker for India in ODI despite making his debut in the seventh month of the year.

His best, though, came in the calendar year of 2018. The decision to put his trust on the young shoulder of the bowler from Uttar Pradesh paid hefty dividends to Kohli. With 45 ODI wickets, Kuldeep ended as the second-highest wicket-taker in the format that year. He played the least number of matches among the top five and was only three wickets shy of table-topper Rashid Khan. Kuldeep was also India’s highest T20I wicket-taker of the year with 21 scalps.