Asia Cup 2025: "It was an injustice to him" - Former India batter shares frank views on Kuldeep Yadav after POTM performance vs UAE

Published - 11 Sept 2025, 12:55 IST | Updated - 11 Sept 2025, 13:23 IST

Kuldeep Yadav won the Player of the Match award in India's opening fixture in the 2025 Asia Cup against the UAE at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, September 11. He played international cricket for the first time since the Champions Trophy final on March 9, and returned with awe-inspiring figures of 4/7 in 2.1 overs.

Former India batter Ajay Jadeja said that Kuldeep had to face injustice, as he could have picked up a six-for had he bowled four overs on the trot. Instead, Suryakumar Yadav wanted to test all his bowlers, and that is why he gave Kuldeep a break after his first two overs. When asked whether the left-arm wrist spinner came as an out-of-syllabus question for the UAE batters, Jadeja said that he was not even in the book.

"Forget the syllabus, he is not even in the book. The four wickets he took, it was an injustice to him. Forget the five matches you didn't play him (in the Test series against England), I am talking light-heartedly, as people might take it seriously, when he had picked up two wickets in his first two overs, Shivam Dube was brought in to bowl, and he was removed, that he is fit (in the team)," Jadeja responded during an interaction on Sony Sports.

"Others were being tried. When he was brought back, he again picked up two wickets in two or three balls. If he had bowled four consecutive overs, he might have picked up six wickets instead of four," Jadeja observed.

Jadeja hailed Kuldeep as a special player and explained that the 30-year-old is now releasing the ball well and with pace.

"There is no doubt that he is a special player. The skill of left-arm wrist spin is extremely rare, and along with that, the thing he has in his hand. Earlier, the speed wasn't this much. Now, he is releasing the ball very well. So it was a matter of time," he said.

Former India opener calls India vs UAE clash a mismatch

Jadeja feels that the UAE batters were trying to predict which way Kuldeep's deliveries would turn, rather than picking him off the hand. The cricketer-turned-expert feels that Kuldeep will have a key role to play in India's next game against arch-rivals Pakistan.

"It was very difficult for these batters to pick which way the ball would go. They were playing on hope as to where the ball would go. You see his class even against good players many times, and his role will be as important in the Pakistan match, and he might be effective there also, although it won't be as much as he was against the UAE," Jadeja observed.