The Nagpur Pace'maker

Nothing came easy for Indian fast bowler Umesh Yadav. The 28-year-old Nagpur cricketer is still working hard to cement his place in the Indian team across all formats, despite making his international debut in 2010. The son of a coal mine worker, Yadav burst on the domestic scene quite late, creating ripples with his raw pace. He got noticed, and played first class cricket only after completing his teens and then went on to play for India. The speedster has appeared in 19 Tests, 57 ODIs and lone Twenty20 internationals before the New Zealand home series.

“I have been playing cricket with rubber and tennis ball since childhood. I started playing with the ‘season’ ball at the age of 20-21 in college when I played in a Twenty20 tournament. My friend told me to play club cricket, so I ventured into it. Some people associated with the VCA (Vidarbha Cricket Association) saw me playing and asked VCA selectors to observe my game. They were so impressed, and it gave me an impetus. I was soon selected for the Ranji camp and went on to represent Vidarbha in Ranji Trophy in 2008-09,” Yadav recalls.

Success came fast to him, as a year later he was playing for India. Delhi Daredevils soon bought him for $750,000 in the 2011 IPL auction. It wasn’t an easy journey for a fast bowler like Yadav to pursue his dream of playing at the highest level, as Nagpur wasn’t known for cricket culture and Vidarbha was playing in the plate division. “Nothing comes easy, if you want to reach a higher level, you have to work hard. I faced difficulties but one can’t cry over it, if you have to reach somewhere. I didn’t have adequate facilities but was lucky. My brothers also played cricket with tennis and rubber ball, but it was my destiny to reach this level. I used to travel 20 km on my bike daily (from Khaparkheda, Nagpur outskirts) to reach the stadium for practice,” he said.

The Vidarbha cricketer is happy the way his family has supported him to pursue cricket as a career. “Everyone in my family was happy for me — I was doing something rather than nothing. They said if you like it (cricket), continue playing. No body had played competitive cricket in my family before,” he adds. Umesh could touch 150 on the speed gun, and his name was making the rounds in the country —  an emerging pace sensation along with Jharkhand’s Varun Aaron. But before Yadav could earn the India call, he suffered a stress fracture in 2009. He eventually made his debut for India in an ODI against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo (May, 2010) and later his Test debut in November 2011 against West Indies in Delhi. Just when he started to bloom with four wickets against England on a turning track in Ahmedabad in 2012, he was injured again.

He was out for five to six months and made a comeback in an ODI during the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy which India eventually won. But he had to wait until December 2014 for a Test comeback. He did well during the Australia tour and followed it up in the ICC ODI World Cup (2015). But since then, he has not been able to maintain consistency and has found himself in and out of the Indian side often. Yadav finds strong support from his wife to combat all those anxious moments.

“It is disappointing when you get dropped. It is not easy to sit back and see (a cricket match) on TV when you love something. But my wife doesn’t let me stress too much, she supports me in such situations and diverts my attention with some other work to focus on,” he says about his wife Tanya, who has done fashion designing, but at the moment is devoting her time supporting her husband and home affairs.

“I bowled badly in one-two series after that I was out of the team. Obviously, when you don’t do well, selectors want to give a chance to others, which is fair enough. Ups and downs are not a big deal. I have to do better and look ahead. I want to be fit and focus on playing more matches. I want to finish my Test career with 300 wickets at least,” he declares.

Dwelling on the memories since his debut so far, Umesh feels that it has been a great journey. “When I made it into the Test team first, I shared the dressing room with the likes of Sachin Paaji (Tendulkar), Rahul (Dravid), (VVS), Laxman, Zak (Zaheer Khan) and others which was a cherished lifetime moment. During the (ODI) World Cup 2015, I emerged as the third highest wicket taker (18 wickets in eight matches) which was a big achievement,” he said. When at home, he is a complete family man and loves to potter around the house. “When I am not playing cricket, I love to sit at my house. I don’t go outside much. I talk with friends and am at peace at home, and do my routine practice,” he said.

Umesh has gotten so engrossed in cricket that he never finished his college. “I started season cricket after passing my 12th class exam. I couldn’t complete BCom final year as the exam dates clashed with the IPL in March-April.  From then on, I have never had the time to appear in exams,” he said.  If not a cricketer, what would he have chosen as a career option? “Join the Army or be a Policeman,” pat comes the reply.