Virender Sehwag Picks Umesh Yadav As India's Third Pacer For 1st Test Against Australia

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag has thrown his support behind Umesh Yadav to be India’s third pacer for the upcoming pink-ball Test against Australia. The historic pink-ball Test will kickstart the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Test series from December 17.

While Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are set to lead the pace attack, India will have to pick one from Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj. In normal circumstances, Ishant Sharma would have been the other pacer but he is out of the series due to an injury.

And as far as Virender Sehwag is concerned, he believes Umesh Yadav should be the third pacer. Speaking on Sony Sports Network, the former cricketer reasoned that the Vidarbha speedster has the ability to bowl unplayable deliveries. Calling himself Umesh Yadav’s fan, the batting legend added that he would even want the pacer to be considered for the limited-overs formats of the game.

“Absolutely. He is fit, he bowls fast, can bowl the long spells. So I feel that he should be played,” said Sehwag.

“But I have been his fan as well, that he should be played in white-ball cricket also. No doubt he has the wicket-taking ability although he might bowl one or two bad balls in an over. But the ball he delivers at the right spot, at times it is unplayable,” he added

Virender Sehwag signed off by observing that Umesh Yadav would have been even more successful in Test cricket had he been a little more consistent with his line and length. He cited the examples of bowlers like Shaun Pollock, Matthew Hoggard, Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie who achieved great success with that approach.

“So in all these years he had to do just the one thing, that he bowls all the six deliveries at the same spot, then he can trouble the batsmen in Test cricket. We have seen Pollock, Hoggard, Glenn McGrath and Gillespie – all these people just used to bowl in one corridor and used to trouble the batsmen,” he said.

Meanwhile, Umesh Yadav is likely to be picked in the playing eleven for the first Test after impressing in the first tour game against Australia A. The right-arm pacer had picked up three wickets.

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