Virat is a bowler's captain: Umesh Yadav

Umesh Yadav has come off age; blamed for being wayward and irresponsible at the start of the year the Vidarbha pacer is now leading the Indian pace bowling attack. He bowled beautifully against Bangladesh in the one-off test at Hyderabad. His third-day spell was the best we have seen of the fast bowler. Shakib Al Hasan who was at the receiving end of this spell termed it as the hardest he had ever played.

When asked about the same Umesh thought differently, he thought of it as a “near perfect spell” as he did not get any wickets out of it. He said: “Yes, I would have termed it a near perfect spell had I got wickets, which, unfortunately, I didn’t. But if you look at that spell, I was beating Shakib with away going deliveries for the left-hander, which is an inswinger. The pace was good, I hit the right length and I knew Shakib was rattled.”

Yadav’s personal favourite spell is the one against South Africa in 2015 at Delhi. Where he got the ball to swing both the ways; which he struggles to do on regular occasions. He said, “In my opinion, my spell against South Africa in Delhi back in 2015 was a touch better. The quality of batsmen were better and they were defending really well which made it more difficult.”

The Indian fast bowler praised captain for giving him the freedom as well. He said that Virat allows him to set his own field and plan accordingly. “Virat is a bowler’s captain. He is someone who would throw the ball at you and tell you to set your own field. He asks me what my plan is or whether I need a particular fielder at a position. He backs your instinct and plans. Only if the plan doesn’t work, he would come up and tell that let’s try this. For him, the bowler gets to execute Plan A and if it doesn’t click, then Plan B,” Umesh was quoted saying to Times of India.

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He also talked about the tips Indian coach Anil Kumble gave him on bowling to the left-handers. He was open to discussing the same and explained, “So what exactly did change for me? I believe my experience of using the crease came in handy. Our coach Anil Kumble advised that if I had to take the ball away from the left-hander with fuller deliveries, I need to come wide off the crease and push it through. The wider you go, the better angles you can create for a left-hander, provided you hit the right length.” He is still getting the hang of the in-swingers which he has been practising for years.

He has his plans in place for Australian opener David Warner. Warner who is in great form will come up against a fully prepared Umesh Yadav. When asked about the plans for Warner he said “Against Warner in Australia, you can hit back of the length but here I would like to bowl him a bit fuller. Even in India, you cannot bowl too full as Warner also drives well. So may be a touch fuller than three-quarter. Hope I can get my length right straightaway.”