Good but not good enough: Can Umesh Yadav force his way into India’s best XI?

This West Indies side are, admittedly, not the strongest side. But the manner is which Umesh Yadav ran through them would have given Virat Kohli and the Indian team management a stern reminder of his wicket-taking talents. The fast bowler became just the third Indian fast bowler to take a 10-for on Indian soil. It was a special achievement especially when one considers that he was the only fit fast bowler India had in the game.

But still how many of us would pick him to play the first Test against Australia if Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Mohammad Shami are all fit. Taken in that context, Yadav’s spell takes on a different meaning. It keeps him in the mix. It makes the team management give the make up of the pace attack another thought. It makes him a serious contender.

And perhaps most importantly, it will give some belief to the speedster who played the first Test against England and was then relegated to watching the remaining four from the cold comfort of the dressing room.

“It is difficult. You are sitting for five days, trying to read the game from outside, to be aware of what’s happening… Nobody likes to sit out. You can’t really do anything. Sometimes you feel like, ‘I would have got wickets if I was playing.’,”he told ESPNCricinfo in an interview recently.

In Yadav’s own words, the team management tried to explain their decisions to him but it can never be easy to have someone tell you that you are not good enough to make the final XI. In his heart of hearts, the Vidharbha fast bowler knew what the issue was.

Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah are bowling exceptionally well at the moment and in his mind, Yadav couldn’t paint a scenario where he would be first choice ahead of them. Throughout the interview mentioned above, he kept talking about being the third bowler. Not the first, not the second but the third. In essence, he was already ruling himself out of the first two places.

The Indian team’s head coach Ravi Shastri briefly touched upon the conundrum in a television interview just after the second Test ended.

“It was heartening to see this from Umesh. Especially in this game when you lose one fast bowler in his second over and the other fast bowler stands up and takes 10 wickets, I felt really happy for him. Because it can be a frustrating profession if you have to sit on the reserve bench like he did during the four Test matches in England. We knew, he knew that at any given stage, he could play. But only the best can play in the XI, and only XI can play. And he got his opportunity here and he grabbed it with both hands,” said Shastri.

But here’s the important bit about belief.

Shastri added: “For Umesh to do it (take 10 wickets)… what this will do… it will make him believe that he belongs to the best XI that India can put out on the park. He’ll now say I want my place. He has given us a headache but that is a very good headache and what I liked was his consistency in this game. He was on target, he realised he had to attack the stumps on this track and he did his job.”

Improved consistency

For the longest time, Yadav’s biggest problem was consistency. He had the pace but he had little control and that meant the captain didn’t quite know what to expect from him. But in the last few years, he has worked on that and become a changed bowler. But just as he seemed to find his feet — the rest of the attack upped its game as well.

“It is always good to have a good, healthy competition for spots in the team,” said Yadav after the second Test ended. “We enjoy each others company and egg each other on. We want to put our best foot forward whenever we play.”

“I knew I was the only fast bowler in the match and I would get more chances and I just wanted to use it,” he added.

Even as Yadav was improving, Ishant found wickets to go with his consistency. Bhuvneshwar added a little more pace to go with his accuracy. Shami’s use of the old ball was unparalleled. Bumrah’s awkward action and pace gave him the advantage. In that mix, one would often wonder what Yadav’s biggest weapon is.

As the 30-year-old ran through the Windies tail in the first innings, perhaps he might have found the answer on his own. No one else in the Indian team can attack the stumps as he does and certainly not at the pace he can. Given how the India attack despite taking 20 wickets in almost each outing have struggled against the tail, there just might be an opportunity there.

There is no denying that India’s pace bowling attack is among the finest in its history. But as far as possible, you want to be part of history… not just watch it from the sidelines. And that, if nothing else, should drive Yadav.

Indian skipper Virat Kohli spoke about Yadav’s energy in the field and how he was a standout performer in the match. But even he knows that selecting the final XI just became that little bit tougher.

“(It is) a great luxury to have that many good seamers. A headache to choose from so many good quality bowlers. If we bat well, we have a good chance of winning the series. The bowling was never in question.”

Indeed, the bowling was never in question but Yadav’s place was and the second Test against the Windies might have gone some way towards changing that.