CHENNAI: Being a pacer who thrives in subcontinental countries is never easy. You get called up for the national team very early in your career and if you are not able to sustain it, you go down the pecking order faster than your rise to the top. It was the case in Indian cricket, especially until the first half of the 2010s. Ask Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat. The latter was the first to play for India at 19 in 2010, while Umesh made his debut less than a year after. Unadkat had a disastrous debut in South Africa and Umesh was taken apart in Australia. Soon, the duo found themselves back in the domestic system where they had to toil for years.
Almost 11 years after making their debuts, Umesh and Unadkat were in the middle again, playing for India together during the second Test against Bangladesh. They shared six wickets between them as the hosts were bundled out for 227 on Thursday. Now, Umesh is a proven international performer in subcontinental conditions. Since the start of 2016, no pacer has taken more wickets than him in Asia. He might not be a regular in the XI when they tour overseas, but Umesh has been India’s biggest match-winning fast bowler in these conditions.
Thursday was no different as he finished with 4/25 in 15 overs, including four maidens. From his first ball where Mohammed Siraj dropped a catch, Umesh looked in control. On a surface that had spongy bounce, he kept hitting the right areas, testing the patience of the batters. He bowled tight lengths with the new ball, challenging Najmul Hossain Shanto and Zakir Hasan. And when he returned to bowl with the old bowl, trying to reverse it, the pacer reaped rewards.
If Umesh has established himself in international cricket, Unadkat has been doing the same year after year in the domestic circuit. Since the 2015-16 season, no pacer has a better record than him in Indian domestic cricket. And yet, the call-up for India A, leave alone India, kept eluding. But once it was clear that Mohammed Shami was not going to recover in time, the chance he waited for years came along. And when he took the field, he did not disappoint. The left-arm pacer did what he does best, creating awkward angles and generating extra bounce to trouble the batters. And the relief after taking his first Test wicket, 12 years and 2 days after his debut, said it all.
No one was happier for him than Umesh, who was there with Unadkat when the left-arm seamer made his debut. “I'm very happy for him that he finally got his chance. When he came into bowl with the new ball, the ball was doing a bit, many balls took the nick of batter's gloves," said Umesh after the day’s play. "We knew that Unadkat is used to bowl on these types of wickets and can swing it both ways. So, he just had to keep bowling in the right areas and test the batters' patience."
Umesh also reasoned with the non-selection of Kuldeep Yadav, who was the player of the match in the first Test, which surprised many. He said that it has happened to him in the past. "Sometimes you are out of the team because of performance and sometimes it's a management's call," he said.