The Indian Premier League (IPL) is often used as a platform for players to identify the chinks in one's armour and exploit them on the international level. Ahead of T20 World Cup 2024, Delhi Capitals' in-form leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav has refused to bowl to South Africa's Tristan Stubbs in the nets, the young batting all-rounder said in a virtual interaction.
"He won't bowl to me. I've tried a few times to go face him, but he won't bowl...I think he's trying to keep it a mystery, so I can't tell you. But I've tried to face him, he's not having it." Stubbs said in an interaction with The Grade Cricketer when asked about whether he can pick his wrong one yet.
Kuldeep is India’s frontline spinner in the 15-member T20 World Cup squad. He has been in decent form with 14 wickets from nine games. His economy rate is 8.26 runs per over.
On the other hand, Stubbs made it to South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad. He has been a handy batter in the middle order, often accelerating in the slog overs. So far, he has scored 318 runs from 12 games at an average of 53 including two half-centuries. His strike rate of 188.17 has stood out.
When Jamieson refused to bowl to Kohli
However, this is not the first time a bowler has refused to bowl to a teammate in the nets during the IPL. New Zealand's Kyle Jamieson refused to bowl to Virat Kohli with the duke ball before the World Test Championship (WTC).
“I have actually got a couple of Dukes balls in my bag. I’ll keep them up my sleeve if the guys start to thump me around”, Jamieson said in the podcast.
Later, Christian also said that Kohli requested Jamieson to bowl to him in the nets but the Kiwi bowler avoided it.
“The three of us were sort of sitting down in the nets and these two [Jamieson and Kohli] were talking about Test cricket. Kohli asks Jamie if he has bowled much with the Dukes ball and Jamieson says, ‘I have a couple of ’em here and I’ll have a bowl here leading up to it’. And Virat says, ‘Oh, if you want to bowl at me in the nets, I’m more than happy to face.’ Jamie is like, ‘no chance I’m gonna bowl at you in the nets!'”
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