India spinner Kuldeep Yadav confessed that he needs to learn from Yuzvendra Chahal, who helped side register a dominating victory over South Africa in their World Cup opening match on Wednesday.
"The way me and Chahal planned, we worked on the same. Our focus was to pick wickets in the middle overs and it worked. Chahal is a player who knows where to bowl, according to the batsman and I need to learn from him and maybe in a few years I will get it," Yadav told reporters.
Chahal was at his devastating best against the Proteas as he bundled off four South Africa batsmen, including their skipper Faf du Plessis. Other bowlers also contributed to restrict South Africa on just 229 runs as Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took two wickets each while Yadav got hold of one batsman.
Yadav bowled 10 overs in the match and gave away just 46 runs. Yadav said that he was 'very much' satisfied with his performance.
"If we talk about my bowling, I would say I am very much satisfied because of the way I was bowling the action and everything was quite positive and good. Whatever I had planned it was perfectly on there," he said.
Yadav also enunciated that T20 format is completely different from ODI format. Therefore, he prepared accordingly for the World Cup after the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
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"T20 is different from one day cricket. After the IPL got over, I went back home and worked hard with my coach there. I worked for 10 days and fixed my basics. Coming to a big event like World Cup, you need to step up in a good bowling attack," Yadav said.
Yadav also said that he will have to focus on his variations because of England's flat wicket and hopes that the team continue their good form in the upcoming matches.
"In England, there will be flat wicket, so, you have to focus on variation and I am glad that we did well in the first game and hopefully will continue the same in upcoming games," he said.
India will now face Australia on June 6.