The dawn and ascent of Umesh Yadav

Sometimes, stats do lie as they are insufficient to show a clear picture of how a player has fared on the cricket field. Exactly that was the case with Indian pacer Umesh Yadav in the recently concluded England Test series where he averaged 58 with the ball taking just 8 wickets in the 143.5 overs he bowled in the 5-match series.

But Umesh, who is known had earlier struggled regularly in bowling a consistent line and lengths has earned praises from commentators to cricketers with his bowling in the recent games. Ever since his debut in 2011, he has always been underused. This England series was the first series for Umesh where he got the real chance to showcase himself as India played with only two pacers in all the five games.

He and Varun Aaron were never entrusted with substantial responsibility by MS Dhoni, the Indian Test captain till 2014. All the games Yadav played in Test cricket till 2014 was in India and Australia. He picked up 25 Test wickets in Australia in 7 games going at 43.96, which wasn’t bad given he featured in two disastrous tours for Indian bowlers.

Ashwin and Ishant were the other two Indian bowlers who played in those two tours and went at 54.71 and 58.38 respectively. Yadav wasn’t blessed enough to play in South Africa, New Zealand and England where Indian pacers had some assistance to bowl with.

In India, Yadav’s ability to utilise reverse swing has fetched him the success. It was the main reason why he averages just 30.1 in 2nd innings but 45.92 in the first. He is one of the few pacers who has a high average difference between 1st and 2nd innings.

Pacers with highest average difference between 1st and 2nd innings in Test cricket:

(Min: 250 overs and 30 wickets in each innings)

In the 40 innings, Umesh bowled before the England series in Tests, he got to bowl the first over of an innings only 4 times. Chepauk Test was the first time he ever bowled the first over of Test match. A bigger role and responsibility ensured better results from Yadav in terms of troubling the opposition batsmen and if the Indian fielders held on the catches, Yadav’s numbers would have also suggested his success in the series.

A total of 6 catches went down off the Vidarbha pacer in the series including 4 in the first game on the flattest of tracks. Not just the dropped ones which affected his numbers but also Kohli’s strategy of following the ball on most occasions in the series and shuffling the fielding positions resulted in edges flying between two fielders.

Chances produced by Umesh Yadav in this series:

England’s right-handers found it difficult facing Umesh Yadav who was skiddy in his first spell and reversed it in the second. His average of 36.83 compared to 116 by left-handers. Even the percentage of the number of edges and deliveries beaten is higher against the right-handers (23.13) than left-hander (20.23).

England batsmen vs Umesh Yadav in this series:

If we look at individual data, Moeen Ali faced Umesh with ease as he scored 76 runs against him in the series at a strike rate of 77 and got out just once. The edge and beaten percent against Ali is just 14.14. Data suggests Bairstow and Stokes did struggle against the Indian quick in the series. Bairstow especially, had 38.46 % balls edged or beaten in the 65 balls faced from Umesh in this series. Both Bairstow (51.53) and Stokes (46.62) scored nearly 7 runs lesser (for every 100 balls) against Umesh than in average in the series.

% of edge and deliveries beaten by Umesh Yadav in this series for each player: