Cricket fans have seen Kuldeep Yadav grab wickets with his slow left-hand wrist-spin on the field, but few know that the 25-year-old is also a fine artist.
“He has been utilising the current lockdown period to explore his painting skills,” says Yadav’s sister, Dimple (Madhu), speaking over telephone from Kanpur.
“He would have been 10-12 years old when he painted his first picture a scenery. He was in Standard IV. He has developed as an artist since then. He paints during his free time. Between cricket tours and training camps, he hardly gets time for this hobby. But the current lockdown has given him the perfect opportunity to pursue it,” Dimple says.
Of late, the cricketer has been choosing religious subjects to paint. He recently did a painting of Lord Hanuman, and also one of Lord Rama, Dimple tells us. “He watches the TV Serial Ramayana. He did the painting of Lord Rama on Ramnavami Day.”
A few of Kuldeep’s paintings will find a place on the walls of his new home. “We are constructing a house in Defence Colony here. It is hardly 700 meters away from our present house,” says Kuldeep’s father Ram Singh Yadav. The house was to have been ready in April and the family was scheduled to move in on the auspicious occasion of Akhatrij, on April 26. However, this has been postponed as work had to be halted due to the lockdown.
Meanwhile, Kuldeep has been following daily training and workout routines under the guidance of Team India trainer Nick Webb.
