Bowling fast is Vidarbha pacer Yadav’s mantra
Cricket :A tremendous learner, says Sehwag
Duncan Fletcher and Eric Simons made no effort to conceal their admiration seeing Umesh Yadav trouble his team-mates during India’s net session at the ACA-VDCA stadium ahead of India’s second one-dayer against the West Indies.
Yadav is just two Tests and eight one-dayers old, but he has already done enough in his fledgling career to invite appreciate nods and smiles from those two not-so-easy-to-please men. So, what makes the 24-year-old a different commodity?
It’s an uncompromising and uncluttered mind that sets Yadav apart. He realises that his strength is bowling fast, and he’s not ready to compromise on that, making him an awkward proposition on any surface. There wasn’t much on offer for pace bowlers at the Barabati stadium during the first one-dayer, but Yadav blew the West Indian top-order away, bowling fast and straight.
There were only a handful of instances when his pace dropped below the 140 kmph mark, and not many are blessed with the ability to sustain that kind of pace for a longer duration.
But he’s not a one-dimensional fast bowler who relies only on pace to hunt down batsmen. He has a few variations up his sleeve along with the stock ball that jags back into the batsmen. He can effectively move the ball away from the batsmen as he showed in the second ODI, dismissing West Indian opener Adrian Barath. Yadav doesn’t have the classic banana swing, but his outswinger moves just enough to take the edge of the blade. He can also spring a surprise with well-directed bouncers and the occasional yorkers, an extremely handy weapon to have against the tailenders.
There comes into play his uncluttered mind, as he knows how to use the variations judiciously to avoid the risk of being predictable. That alert mind and understanding of his craft has helped him hold his own at the highest level thus far.
Virender Sehwag, who has observed the Vidarbha lad a lot as part of the Delhi Daredevils set-up in the Indian Premier League, said, “He is a tremendous learner, a very enthusiastic lad. He keeps talking to Simons and Fletcher about bowling, and looks to improve his performance all the time. The good thing about him is that he improves with every match, and that’s really good to see. Along with Varun Aaron, I am sure he will serve India for a long time,” Sehwag said.
Yadav has comprehensively pipped Aaron to the post in the competition for the third seamer’s slot in the Indian side for the Tests against Australia. Aaron has pace, but unlike Yadav, he lacks variations and control at the moment. Definitely, the Jharkhandi has the potential to be in the scheme of things for a longer time, but he needs a bit more refinement before walks into the Test side to do the third seamer’s duty behind Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.
Yadav has entered and performed at the big stage without any fright. The team management should continue to let him be his natural self, and not tinker with his basic penchant for bowling fast. In the past, we have seen Indians losing pace drastically after a short stint at the top level, so the support staff should take extreme care in nurturing Yadav and ensuring that he too doesn’t not end up in the list of lost talent.
Unlike some of his predecessors, stardom hasn’t gone to Yadav’s head yet as he has managed to retain a simplicity that comes with his middle-class upbringing. Maintaining it will play a massive role in his success.
