Indian skipper Rohit Sharma showered praise on Kuldeep Yadav after India lifted their eighth Asia Cup title by beating Sri Lanka in the final by 10 wickets at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Sunday. Yadav was awarded Player of the Tournament in the Asia Cup for taking nine wickets in five matches at an average of 11.44.

The left-arm spinner has been performing consistently in the last couple of years and he has done a magnificent job for the team. In 16 ODI matches of 2023, Yadav has snared 31 wickets at an average of 15.51.

Yadav returned with figures of 5-25 in the Super Fours stage match against Pakistan and then bagged 4-43 against Sri Lanka when the team was defending 213 runs.

“Kuldeep has bowled superbly. Under pressure, whenever he’s had the chance to bowl, especially against Sri Lanka [in the Super 4s] where we didn’t have a big score, he came in and picked up a lot of crucial wickets. His confidence has gone up over the last 1-1.5 years,” Rohit Sharma said after India’s triumph in the Asia Cup.

“Whenever he’s got the chance he’s bowled well. He’s brought the team back from tough situations, which is a good quality. As a team if we have such a quality bowler, it feels great,” the Indian captain added.

Meanwhile, India was able to skittle out Sri Lanka for a paltry score of 50 runs, which is latter’s second lowest total in ODIs, in the Asia Cup final. Mohammed Siraj was the chief destroyer with 6-21 and Rohit Sharma admitted he didn’t expect the surface to have so much help for the seamers.

​​“Honestly I was a little surprised at how much the wicket did, because we didn’t expect the wicket to do that much. That’s been the nature of this ground, you have to be prepared for unexpected things. Those are the challenges you come across as sportsmen. In conditions like this you don’t know exactly what the right score is, what the winning score is,” Rohit said.

Rohit admitted they got challenging wickets in Sri Lanka however he was happy with the way the team performed in the continental tournament.

“We defended 213 against Sri Lanka, but the other day we couldn’t chase 266 [against Bangladesh], and today we bowled them out for 50. So, the nature of the pitches here has been challenging, and unexpected as well. I mean when the pitch had so much to offer, we needed guys who have the skill to exploit that,” the Indian skipper concluded.

India will take on Australia in a three-match ODI series before the all-important World Cup.