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After a couple of years away from the limelight on account of injury and lack of opportunities for both club and country, Kuldeep Yadav has delighted fans across the league with his electrifying performances and sensational figures this season.
On Thursday night, Kuldeep finished with an impressive haul of 4-15 against the Kolkata Knight Riders, his old employers who had decided against retaining him for the current season following two disappointing seasons relegated to the bench.
This, added to his previous haul of 4-35 against KKR in the earlier IPL 2022 fixture means the spinner finished with eight wickets in his two outings against Kolkata.
Fittingly, Kuldeep picked up the Man of the Match award for his performance while the KKR players and management were left to pick up the pieces following their fifth consecutive loss this season.
Having joined KKR in 2016, Kuldeep played 45 matches for the franchise, taking 40 wickets at an average of 30.90. In 2020, he was included for just five matches as the spinner went out of favour with Varun Chakravarthy's arrival.
In 2021, he did not make a single appearance before injury forced him out of the tournament.
In Delhi, Kuldeep has found a willing captain in Rishabh Pant and an equally supportive Head Coach in Ricky Ponting resulting in a massive confidence boost which has catapulted his game to the next level.
With 17 wickets already in his kitty this season and the purple cap well within sight, Kuldeep is enjoying his best-ever IPL season and that is credit to the amount of hard work he has put in after what he admits to reaching a point of 'failure'.
In all four of the victories logged by Delhi this season, it has been Kuldeep Yadav who has won the Man of the Match on every single occasion.