Jayant Yadav burst onto the Indian cricket scene in a great way. He had a dream Test series against England in 2016, when he scored a Test century and bowled pretty well to complement R Ashwin.
However, a freak finger injury pressed the pause button on what should have been the start to an excellent career for India. He missed the second half of 2017 due to the injury and now will be looking to rebuild his career.
His presence on the field, bowling abilities and prowess with the bat even impressed Virat Kohli. “I had a stress injury on my bowling finger that kept me out for nearly three and a half months,” Jayant revealed to Wisden India. “I am just glad to get over this injury and start bowling again.”
“As a professional sportsperson, injuries are part and parcel of your career. It is not in your hands that the injury should come now or later,” he added, reflecting on the timing of the injury. “Obviously it was a very bad time when it came, but to be honest, initially I used to think about it. But at the end, you just have to accept it and move on. You can’t keep clinging on to that thought.”
Jayant said that due to the injury to his finger, he couldn’t bat or bowl, so he had to focus on the fitness aspect.
He said, “My injury was in my finger so I could do everything except batting and bowling! Batting also I couldn’t because the impact of the ball on bat used to jar my hand. But I could run and train. I ran a lot, trained, ate well and just tried to get back better.”
Talking about the plans of future, Jayant says he isn’t looking too ahead.
He explained, “I never plan anything very, very far ahead. More often than not, plans don’t pan out exactly in life. I’m going to just take every tournament at a time,” he went on. “The most important thing now is that I’m able to bowl, which I’m really happy about. The second thing on my mind is being able to make an impact in Syed Mushtaq Ali, then the Vijay Hazare Trophy, then the IPL. And we’ll take it from there. Obviously if I keep on doing well, I will get chances. Of course I want to play for the country again in any format, in whatever chance I get. But I’m taking it every day at a time, rather than thinking of when I’ll be playing for the country again.”
Jayant Yadav has a bright future ahead of himself as he was the only player to be chosen for both the One-day and long format squads for the South Africa A tours after a bright start against England. The freak injury to his finger is only a stumbling block and we should see the talented all-rounder back in Team India colors soon.
