Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has revealed Kuldeep Yadav was one of his targets in the IPL 2022 mega auction. Kuldeep wasn’t getting enough game time for Kolkata Knight Riders as the franchise was preferring Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in their final XI.

Delhi Capitals had roped in the services of Kuldeep Yadav for INR 2 crores in the IPL 2022 mega auction and he got his chances in playing XI consistently for the franchise.

Yadav wasn’t in the best of forms in the last couple of years however he made a solid comeback in IPL 2022. The left-arm wrist-spinner scalped 21 wickets in 14 matches for Delhi Capitals and finished as the team’s leading wicket-taker in the season. Furthermore, Yadav finished as the fifth-highest wicket-getter of the tournament.

Yadav bowled with more confidence as he had the backing of the team management and the captain, Rishabh Pant.

Kuldeep’s best performance in IPL 2022 came against his former team Kolkata Knight Riders when he scalped 4-14 in the three overs he bowled.

“He was one of the targets of mine going into the auction because I’ve seen how good he has been in the past,” Ponting said while talking to Isa Guha on ICC Review. “His skill hadn’t gone anywhere. It was a matter of us getting really close to him and working him out as an individual. Try and set an environment and training regime for him to try and bring out the best in him.

“We all worked really closely with him. Watto (Shane Watson) in particular worked a lot with him on the mental side of the game, and we got some really good returns from him.”

On the other hand, after his impressive performances in the IPL 2022, Kuldeep Yadav was named in the T20I squad for the series against South Africa. However, Yadav was ruled out of the series with an injury, which he picked up while batting in the nets before the first T20I.

Yadav, along with KL Rahul, who was also ruled out with a groin injury, has started his rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.