Umesh Yadav
Umesh Yadav: a brief biography of a cricketer
Umesh Yadav was born in Nagpur, Maharashtra, on October 25, 1987. He started playing cricket at the age of 19. The late debut is explained by the fact that the future athlete could not decide on the choice of profession for a long time: he applied to join the army and the police and also tried to get into the main squad of the college cricket team but without success.
In 2007, Yadav was finally lucky: he was accepted into the Vidarbha Gymkhana Club (VCA). The famous cricketer Pritam Gandhe, who supported a young colleague in the early stages of his career, noted:
“He was rude and wayward. But at the same time, fast, even too fast. I thought that if at least three of his six balls hit the target, he would become a real headache for the batsmen.”
In 2008, Umesh Yadav played for Vidarbha for the first time in a match against Madhya Pradesh. In the same season, he took part in four more matches, destroying a total of 20 wickets.
A confident game and positive statistics allowed the athlete to enter the field in the debut ODI competitions soon. A little later, Yadav played for the Central Zone team in the Duleep Trophy.
Two years later, Umesh Yadav moved to Delhi Daredevils, where he spent several successful seasons (in particular, in 2012, he finished fourth on the list of players who destroyed the most wickets). In 2014, he was acquired by the KKR club, and four years later, Royal Challengers Bangalore won the fight for the gifted athlete. Performances for the latter have become particularly successful for Yadav: in particular, in 14 matches of the 2018 season, he scored 20 destroyed wickets. However, the athlete’s results subsequently declined, and in 2021 he moved to Delhi Capitals. Thus, over the years of playing in the Indian Premier League, Umesh has changed four clubs:
- Delhi Daredevils (2010-2013);
- Kolkata Knight Riders (2014-2017);
- Royal Challengers Bangalore (2018-2020);
- Delhi Capitals (2021-).
Umesh Yadav: game statistics
| Competition Category | Test | ODI | T201 | FC |
| Matches | 45 | 75 | 7 | 96 |
| Runs | 339 | 79 | 2 | 995 |
| Average performance | 30.26 | 33.63 | 24.33 | 28.73 |
| Balls served | 7191 | 3558 | 150 | 16139 |
| Best score | 31 | 18 | 2 | 128 |
Umesh Yadav: performances at the international level
Umesh Yadav received an invitation to the national team in 2010. His ODI debut came at the tri-nations tournament, where India faced Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. In three matches, the player was able to destroy only one wicket, so the issue of being included in the team on a permanent basis was not resolved in his favor.
However, Yadav was soon given another chance, which he was not slow to take advantage of in the match against the England national team. The castling of the squad allowed him to gain a foothold in the basis of the national team: in the 2011-2012 season, he took part in all test matches, destroying a total of 14 wickets. The injuries that followed left the cricketer out of the game for a while, but already in 2015, he again reminded of himself at the World Cup, taking third place in the list of the most effective bowlers.
Some of Yadav’s records have not been broken yet: in particular, he remains the fastest bowler in the country (the recorded maximum is 152.5 km/h). Sidharth Monga noted,
“Yadav is in great shape, and he is strong and fast. More importantly, he is ready to attack the stumps without waiting for the right chance – that’s how he destroyed 11 wickets out of 21 in test matches.”
Australian former bowler Glenn McGrath also made no secret of his admiration for Yadav’s game:
“He’s really impressive. He serves at high speed and clearly has the right attitude; in addition, he is clearly aimed at destroying the wicket. It’s a natural gift, and I think he has a great future ahead of him.”
