A lot of people had the same advice for Kuldeep Yadav: bowl quicker. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan told him to slow down.

The former India spinner calls the first piece of advice “probably the most unwanted advice that one can get as a spinner”. Kuldeep, struggling for rhythm after the Sri Lanka series, reached out to Sivaramakrishnan, The Indian Express can reveal. What he got first was not a technical fix.

“First thing I did was, I reassured him,” Sivaramakrishnan told this daily. “There was lot of slander on social media where a lot of them were saying he was finished. First thing I gave him was reassurance and said there are a few changes that you need to make in your action and if you do, you will be the number one bowler again. Giving him the confidence was foremost. He can still be a front line spinner for years to come.…