INDORE: Umesh Yadav likes playing with the SG manufactured balls. Using his quick-arm action and skiddy pace (most of his balls kisses the surface before honing into the stumps), he’s built up quite the record on Indian surfaces. Because he almost always gets the ball to pitch on a good length or fuller, he knows he’s always in business.
The flip side to that particular style of bowling is he can stray onto the pads and get worked onto the leg-side but he doesn’t mind that. Occupational hazard.
He once again showcased what makes him a dangerous customer on surfaces like these. Of the 24 wickets to have fallen over the first five sessions, spinners accounted for 20 (one run-out). The other three were all claimed by Yadav, who was drafted in as a replacement for Mohammed Shami, the lead Indian pacer in these environments without the injured Jasprit Bumrah.
The 36-year-old, who went back to Nagpur after the second Test as he lost his father, Tilak, turned up just when his captain, Rohit Sharma, needed somebody to put their hands up. After Ravichandran Ashwin broke through post a wicket-less opening hour, Yadav assumed centre-stage as he removed the pitch from the equation.
Under-utilised on Wednesday, the oldish ball was showing some signs of tailing into the batter when Yadav was summoned by Sharma. The Australian lead had swelled to 79, with Cameron Green appearing impregnable. Off the last ball of his first over on Thursday, Yadav breached his defence. The ball pitched on leg before straigtening a touch. Green was beaten by the slightest of movements and the leg-before appeal was upheld. The all-rounder reviewed but DRS returned it as trimming the leg bail.
India needed a collapse to get back into the game and Yadav ensured they didn’t waste the opening. Against the lower-order, Yadav doesn’t like to bowl any magic balls or doesn’t try to get it up into the rib cage. His only mantra is fast and hitting the stumps. He dismissed Mitchell Starc with one such delivery, a length delivery coming in with the angle to make a mess of the furniture behind. With Ashwin finally finding the right length to bowl on this pitch, damage was being done at both ends. Yadav, though, fittingly had the final say, bowling Todd Murphy to return with figures of 3/12 in five overs.
In the process, he became just the third pacer to pick up a 100 wickets in India since the beginning of 2000, joining Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. While it’s true that he leaks runs -- his economy rate is the worst among all pacers to have played a minimum of 15 Tests in the same time period -- he makes up for that shortcoming with his ability to take wickets. Among all Indian pacers since the turn of the century, he is the third for wickets (103), with an average of 24.53 at a strike rate of 46.1.
All of these numbers make him an elite operator in India. At 36 and an established hierarchy set in stone (it appears he’s only fourth in the pecking order behind Jasprit Bumrah, Shami and Mohammed Siraj), he may not get to add many more wickets to his tally. But he will always be there when the team needs him most, honing into the one postcode he loves most; the place where the stumps are located.
Scoreboard
India 1st innings: 109; Australia 1st Innings (O/n 156/4): Handscomb c Iyer b Ashwin 19, Green lbw Umesh 21, Carey lbw Ashwin 3, Starc b Umesh 1, Lyon b Ashwin 5, Murphy b Umesh 0, Kuhnemann not out 0; Extras: (b 9, lb 8, nb 5) 22; Total: (all out in 76.3 overs) 197; FoW: 5-186, 6-188, 7-192, 8-196, 9-197; Bowling: Ashwin 20.3-4-44-3, Jadeja 32-8-78-4, Axar 13-1-33-0, Umesh 5-0-12-3, Siraj 6-1-13-0.India 2nd Innings: Rohit lbw Lyon 12, Gill b Lyon 5, Pujara c Smith b Lyon 59, Kohli lbw Kuhnemann 13, Jadeja lbw Lyon 7, Iyer c Khawaja b Starc 26, Bharat b Lyon 3, Ashwin lbw Lyon 16, Axar not out 15, Umesh c Green b Lyon 0, Siraj b Lyon 0; Extras: (b 3, lb 4) 7; Total: (all out in 60.3 overs) 163; FoW: 1-15, 2-32, 3-54, 4-78, 5-113, 6-118, 7-140, 8-155, 9-155; Bowling: Starc 7-1-14-1, Kuhnemann 16-2-60-1, Lyon 23.3-1-64-8, Murphy 14-6-18-0.