Indian fast bowler Umesh Yadav has come out and expressed that the use of two new balls from either end in the modern limited overs game is killing the beautiful art of reverse swing. Umesh has echoed the sentiment stated by the great Sachin Tendulkar recently, where the master blaster termed the current way of playing ODI cricket, "a recipe for disaster".
Umesh, who is currently in the United Kingdom with his preparation for the stern challenge against England in full flow, was quoted saying, “Because of the two new balls, it is tough for the fast bowlers to contain runs. If you have only one ball then it gets older and older and you get reverse swing. With two balls, reverse swing is rarely seen in the ODI game right now, so it is difficult for fast bowlers especially if they don’t get the lengths and the yorkers right,"
“If the ball isn’t doing anything in the death overs, it is tough to handle that pressure especially if the wicket is very flat. Nowadays we have seen that the wickets are very flat and in England, they are now regularly playing on that kind of surfaces. They are scoring 480, so definitely it is very challenging for the fast bowlers. Even so, we are looking forward to this challenge because we are playing good cricket and we will try to play our best in England,”
Umesh got match figures of 2/19 against Ireland on his return to the side for the shortest format, on Friday, 29th June. He is happy having helped India seal the series 2-0 and believes, looking ahead to the challenge of facing England, that he can step up whenever needed by the team management.
“This is like my comeback after five years, I am definitely happy with my performance in this game and I enjoyed myself a lot in this outing. I just tried to keep it simple and tried to do the same things as I did in the IPL. In the future also, I will try to do the same routine and see how it works out for me.”
Umesh knows opportunities like yesterday will be rare for him, given the depth India has with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah leading the limited overs attack. He talked about this and said, “The team is very well balanced right now. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah are doing well, and then there are other pacers too, like Mohammed Shami. So it gets difficult to get a chance, even though the team management is trying their best to give us opportunities to play. They are trying to rotate and give chances to all fast bowlers, so I am just waiting for those chance to come.”
“I am trying not to think about whether it is happening or not. I am trying to think about the process of bowling, and whenever my turn comes, about giving 100 percent on the field for the team. If I keep giving performances like in the IPL or today, it will only help me get more chances. So this is a happy headache for the selectors. They will see what is happening and maybe I will get more chances as I am waiting for those chances,”
Umesh is confident about himself and it is a very good news for Indian Cricket. He concluded by saying, “All of our bowlers did well in the IPL so we are trying to do the same things here. We have different plans, A and B, so if one doesn’t work out we try to execute the second plan because you cannot go in with one plan only. That’s how you play with an aggressive and confident mindset while bowling.”
"All our bowlers are confident about what we can do in England. There will be few adjustments from how we bowled in the IPL, for sure, but we will work out what they are and how to implement them. We have a lot of variations up our sleeves. More importantly, we are enjoying bowling together at the moment, supporting each other and bowling as a group.”
(Inputs from Indian Express)
