It's important to identify the right line and length as a spinner: Kuldeep Yadav

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Manchester, July 4: After wrecking England with a spell of 5 for 24, chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav said it was easy to bowl against them despite this being his first tour of Old Blighty.

"It is my first tour of England and things are going quite well for me," said Kuldeep, who had also taken seven wickets from the two T20Is against Ireland last week.

"I have not bowled to them before but it was easy to bowl against them. But after this game and the next couple of games coming up, they will prepare well against me. So looking forward to the next T20s and the one-dayers," he said.

Kuldeep said his line, length and variations helped him achieve success in the first T20I. "The England batting got off to a good start. They were 65-odd after seven overs. When I came on to bowl, I first wanted to gauge the wicket, see how it was playing. It was a bit dry, it appeared as if there was a slight chance of the ball turning," he said.

"But at the beginning, it wasn't turning. When Yuzvendra Chahal was bowling, he said there wasn't much turn but the ball was stopping a little. When I came on, I started to vary my pace. I thought if I bowled a little slower, it would be difficult for the batsmen, they would have to start using their feet.

"When I came on for my second over, I pulled back the pace even more, gave the ball flight, landed it on one spot and kept the length good. That's how I got Morgan in my third over and then I kept bowling one ball at a time. The plan was to make them stretch, didn't want to land the ball in easy spots. I didn't want to give them any pace because it gets easier to bat when there is pace on the ball. Hence, I was varying my pace."

Kuldeep was happy to snare Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow that tilted the match in favour of India. "Obviously they are quality batsmen and it's a very good feeling when you take two wickets on the trot. It also gives your team the chance to build the momentum for all the bowlers. It was amazing and the third over was brilliant, I guess.

"Three wickets in that over really changed the game for us. All five wickets were good. The five wickets were important from the team's point of view and all five were important for me too," said Kuldeep.

Kuldeep said he was not worried over batsmen getting aggressive against him. "I never look at the batsman and bowl, I always think about what I need to do. Yes, if Jos Buttler is batting against you - I have bowled a lot to him in this IPL and even earlier, so I knew his plans.

"I knew that he would not take chances against me, he would be happy to take ones or twos and not look for the boundaries. I was happy to concede the single to him. The other batsmen haven't played me at all, so I had a good chance of getting them out.

"England is a very good side. They are playing very good cricket in ODIs and T20Is, and they play very well in their own conditions. But it depends on what lengths you bowl," he said.

"If you bowl the kind of lengths I did, any batsman will struggle, no matter who the batsman is. I am not pointing out any specific individual but if you bowl a good line and length and your variations are good, then whichever team you are bowling to, they will struggle. The same thing happened in South Africa. For a spinner, it is important to identify the right line and length and stick to it," he said.

Kuldeep also shed light into how his mind works. "When I started bowling, my coach Kapil sir would stand by my side and tell me, 'Let the batsman hit sixes. Let's see how many sixes he can hit'. I used to practice that drill too, of getting hit for sixes so that when I am hit for sixes in the match, I don't feel the pressure," he said.

"That was instilled in me by Kapil sir at an early age and even today, I am not afraid of bowling, of getting hit for sixes. If a batsman has hit me for a six off a bad ball, then I feel sad because I didn't deliver the ball the way I wanted to. But if the batsman has hit a good shot, I don't feel bad.

"If you want to take wickets, you have to turn the ball. If you don't turn the ball and if you don't get the drift, then a spinner is not a spinner. You can't be a game-changer. If a spinner gets four or five wickets in a T20 game, invariably his team ends up on top. What I learnt in my childhood, I am following the same here. I am not afraid of getting tonked, that is the biggest plus point for me," he said.