Kuldeep: 'You learn a lot when you don't play'

For Kuldeep Yadav , rhythm is everything. It's what aids his drift, helps develop a loop to deceive batters in the air, and gives him confidence to sequence his deliveries better.

However, he says, rhythm only comes with time in the middle, something he didn't have a lot of through the course of an entire Test series in England, because the team opted for batting depth.

"In England, obviously, looking at the conditions and the combination of the team, I didn't get a place in the XI," he said ahead of India's final group match against Oman in Abu Dhabi in the Asia Cup. "But it was a very good time for me to work on myself, to improve my fitness and to give more volume to bowling, because it is very important."

Instead of sitting and sulking, Kuldeep developed his own pattern to trainin