I Can Mostly Pull My Body For Another Two Or Three Years: Umesh Yadav

Indian pacer Umesh Yadav believes that he can ‘pull his body’ for another two or three years in international cricket and he can’t wait to make a match-winning contribution in the upcoming ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand.

With India’s riches in the pace departments at its absolute zenith, Umesh isn’t a sure starter in the Indian Test team.

The Vidarbha express, however, feels that it is a good thing for Indian cricket as a plethora of options at their disposal helps them to rotate their pacers and manage their workload.

“I am 33 now and I know that I can mostly pull my body for another two or three years, and there will be some youngsters who will be arriving (to play). I feel this is just healthy because it ultimately ends up benefiting the team,’ Umesh Yadav told ESPNCricinfo.

“When you have five or six fast bowlers on a tour of four or five Tests, you can play each one of them for two games to help reduce their stress and workload, so it helps that pack (of fast bowlers) play for longer,” he added.

Umesh Yadav’s career has been an interesting one. The right-handed bolter has been India’s best seamer in home conditions since his debut but he hasn’t found the same success in overseas seamer-friendly conditions.

“So I haven’t played much overseas, and I haven’t had much experience of those kinds of wickets. But I’ve played a fair amount of Tests so far and learnt with experience how a particular surface will behave,” Umesh added.

 

Umesh Yadav hoping to make a match-winning impact in the WTC Final

The right-hander is one of the fittest cricketers in the Indian team. Barring the calf injury that he suffered during the Melbourne Test, he hasn’t had many injury issues during his decade-long career.

“As far as the rest of my career is concerned, thank god that relatively I haven’t had that many injuries. And that is satisfying as a fast bowler, because once a fast bowler starts getting injured (regularly), he tends to start struggling, which ultimately reduces his (playing) life,” said Umesh Yadav

“After an injury, there is the recovery, and then you need a rehab, which consumes a lot of time, which you can never get back. But I have lost very little time to injury periods, which has kind of helped me lengthen my career. So I haven’t had to compromise a lot on my pace as well,” he said.

Umesh no longer plays white-ball cricket for India. And so, if given a chance in the WTC final- which he is confident of given the seamer-friendly conditions in the UK- he wants to make a match-winning impact against the Kiwis.

”We have worked really hard to get there, and with players like me who are not regulars in white-ball cricket, it is this that we consider our World Cup. If I am able to perform well in that match and we end up winning, being world champions will forever be a memory,” he said. The match is in England, where swing and seam are important, so I definitely see myself in the playing XI for that game,” he added.

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