Birthday special: Umesh Yadav – The tireless Vidarbha Express
Being a pace bowler is one of the most difficult things to do in cricket. There are only a handful of individuals who have the strength and will to cope up with the toll it takes on a person’s body. And, there’s one gentleman from India, named Umesh Yadav who has seen it all and has managed to come out on top in every situation.
After toiling hard in the domestic circuit, Yadav first got a chance to play in the Indian Cricket Team in the year 2010, when he made his One Day International debut. He got a relatively easy opponent to bowl to in his very first game in international cricket, as the match was played against Zimbabwe. In that game, he was not able to pick any wickets but managed to do a great job of keeping the flow of runs in check, while bowling alongside a relatively new lot of bowlers.
A year later, he got the chance to represent the Indian team in the longest format of the sport. In his very first game, he had the challenge of bowling to a West Indies team that had the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul in its batting order. He was not able to pick any wickets in the first innings of the match but made a comeback in the second innings where he managed to pick two wickets.
With 144 wickets in 46 tests for India, he has become a vital part of Indian pace machinery.
Wishing a very happy birthday to the Indian speedster @y_umesh! pic.twitter.com/fUUr94WzmN— 100MB (@100MasterBlastr) October 25, 2020
Decent Australia tour
From that point on, Yadav became somewhat of a regular feature in the Indian national team. Team India, toured Australia in December 2011, and in what proved to be a dismal run for the team, a big positive came out in the form of Yadav. He managed to impress everyone with the Kookaburra ball, and ended the tour as the team’s highest wicket-taker with 14 wickets to his name in 4 Tests. But, what followed was a nightmare for him, as he had to sit out of the team for a year.
Umesh did manage to recover well from the injuries and made a strong comeback into the Indian team, quickly becoming one of the mainstays of the bowling line up. He has also done considerably well in T20 cricket too, be it for the Indian team or his IPL franchise. He may be expensive on certain occasions, but when on song, there is no stopping his wicket-taking ability. Umesh has been what every pace bowler coming out of India wants to be. A well-built athlete with the ability to bowl deliveries at unreal pace and mix them up with variations, leaving the batsman thinking about what to do next. And, his numbers speak for themselves.
The weakness
In spite of having so many positives in his bowling, there is one chink in his armour that he would be looking to hammer out as soon as possible. That is, his ability to perform well in overseas conditions. Umesh has managed to make a name for himself, while playing in India, picking up wickets in clusters, as the conditions here help his style of bowling. But when on tour outside the country, there is still a historical performance due from him. And, with age creeping up, he will surely make changes and get his name registered as one of India’s best overseas bowlers.
We wish Umesh Yadav a very happy birthday and hope that his numbers get even better and he goes down in the record books as one of the best pacers to have ever donned the Indian jersey.
