New Delhi: Former captain Sunil Gavaskar has been impressed by Kuldeep Yadav's performance in the ongoing IPL and gave a "honest advice" to the Indian selectors to keep an eye on the young left-arm spinner.
Playing in place of the more experienced Piyush Chawla, Yadav turned out to be Kolkata Knight Riders' surprise weapon as they sealed an Indian Premier League play-off berth with a 22-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday.
"He has been quite impressive and my honest advice to the Indian selectors will be to keep an eye on this young man. And the fact that he is a different kind of a bowler, you have got to be a little patient with him, but he is the kind of a bowler who can win you matches in the future. We should keep an eye on him," Gavaskar told 'NDTV' about the 22-year-old Yadav, who was born in Kanpur.
Yadav (2/28) dismissed a well-set Shikhar Dhawan (51) to trigger Sunrisers' collapse and help KKR restrict them to just 149 for eight.
After a decent outing in the Champions League, Yadav was included in India's ODI squad for the series against the West Indies in October 2014, and he made his first-class and List A debuts shortly after.
Gavaskar said one should not read too much into Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli walking upto the fourth umpire during his team's IPL Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Lions in Bengaluru last night.
Chasing 159, RCB were reeling at 68 for six when Stuart Binny was wrongly given out in the 10th over, much to the chagrin of Kohli, who was up on his feet in the dug-out.
Asked if Kohli had overreacted, Gavaskar responded in negative.
"I don't think so. I think he just went to the umpire to enquire what was happening. I don't think he was going to argue. You have got to understand sometimes captains and coaches want to know what is the rationale behind a particular decision. He just wanted a clarification. And clearly the umpires can give a clarification if they want to or they can turn and say 'look we are doing our business, you do yours'.
"I don't think it was a confrontation. It was a skipper who is so involved and committed to the team winning the trophy, they have not won the trophy. We should not read too much into it," the batting legend said.
After AB de Villiers propelled RCB to an improbable win from the verge of defeat, Kohli declared that the South African was the best in the world. Asked if he agreed with the current Indian batting maestro, Gavaskar was on the same page.
On a lighter note, Gavaskar said, "Are you mad, if I say something Virat will come and confront me. Virat says AB is number one, so he is number one.