Umesh Yadav and India's need for speed

It was only just a few days ago that veteran India pacer Umesh Yadav’s stint with England’s county side Middlesex was said to have come to an abrupt end due to a thigh muscle injury he sustained during a Royal London One Day Cup game against Gloucestershire in August.

“Middlesex Cricket regrets to announce that we have been made aware that Umesh Yadav will not be returning to London to finish the season with the Club and will play no further part in Middlesex’s County Championship run-in due to an ongoing injury to his quad muscle,” Middlesex CCC had issued in a statement on 17 September.

Following the injury, Umesh then returned to India, where he was undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

However, in a move that probably nobody would have seen coming, on 18 September, Umesh Yadav was drafted into the Team India squad for the upcoming T20I series against Australia, starting on Tuesday (20 September). His recall to the India limited-overs side came on the back of Mohammed Shami testing positive for COVID-19, and eventually having been forced to miss out on the Australia T20Is.

Notably, Umesh Yadav last played a limited-overs game for India three years back, against Australia in February 2019 in a T20I in Vishakaptnam. Shami, too, had been out of Team India’s T20I playing XI for quite a while now, and had last played a T20I against Namibia in November 2021 during the T20 World Cup in UAE.

Not everyone was happy with Umesh Yadav’s selection in the team. Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra took to Twitter to express his views, saying that ‘plans had gone awry’ for the Men in Blue.

“Since the last World Cup, India has played loads of T20i games but Md. Shami and Umesh Yadav didn’t feature in any one of them…and with just four weeks to the World Cup, both have become a part of the plans. Plans gone a little awry?,” Chopra had tweeted on Sunday.

Since the last World Cup, India has played loads of T20i games but Md. Shami and Umesh Yadav didn’t feature in any one of them…and with just four weeks to the World Cup, both have become a part of the plans. Plans gone a little awry?

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 18, 2022

The team management could have gone ahead with the likes of Mohammad Siraj, but skipper Rohit Sharma explained the reasoning behind Yadav’s selection, saying players like Umesh had proven themselves irrespective of the format.

“There were few options, but few of them are injured like Prasidh (Krishna),” Rohit said at the press conference on Sunday.

“Siraj is playing county, we do not want him to fly all the way, maybe play one or two games. That won’t be fair. Avesh was quite sick in the Asia Cup and he needs some time to recover. From fitness point of view, he needed some time and rebuild his fitness. All those things were considered,” Rohit had said.

“Guys like Umesh, Shami, who have been bowling for a long time, they do not need to be playing a format to be considered,” commented the skipper.

“They have proven themselves as players in whichever format they have played. We understand the quality, it is the new guys on whom it will depend whether they have played this format or not. But guys like Umesh and Shami, if they are fit and fine, they will be called back. We don’t need to look at their form, we saw how Umesh bowled in the IPL,” Rohit commented.

Unsold twice, bought by KKR in third round

Umesh Yadav’s stint with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2022 was a massive turning point for him this year. Yadav had only played two games for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2020, and did not play a single match for Delhi Capitals (DC) in 2021.

At the IPL 2022 player auction, Yadav went unsold not once, but twice, and it was only in the third round that Umesh finally found buyers in KKR, who snapped him up for a base price of Rs 2 crore.