Hailing the spinners’ performance in India’s highly successful home season, former India international Zaheer Khan has said the pacers were also spot on to do their duties.
The duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took the bulk of the wickets during the home season but the pacers were also not very far behind on making their impact on unfriendly tracks. On the pitches where the spinners had struggled like the one at the Eden Gardens against New Zealand or at Dharamsala against Australia, the pacers always rose to the occasion. And one bowler who made a constant impression throughout the long season was Umesh Yadav.
In the absence of an injured Mohammed Shami, the right-arm pacer spearheaded the pace attack brilliantly and played a pivotal role in helping India beat Australia 2-1 in the recently-concluded series. Terrorising the Australian batsmen with his sheer pace, Yadav finished the series with 17 wickets — his best figures in a series — at a brilliant strike rate of 45 and remarkable average of 23.4 runs per wicket. And so it was not surprising to see Zaheer Khan singling out the Vidarbha pacer for his performance.
“In India’s home season, spinners played the main role but the supporting role of fast bowlers was tremendous. When you play bowlers, who are consistently clocking 140 kmph, you get some benefits. Umesh has had a tremendous season as he can reverse the ball. When the ball gets old, you need bowlers who have pace to reverse the ball,” Zaheer, who will be leading Delhi Daredevils told media persons at unveiling event of their overseas recruits Pat Cummins and Kagiso Rabada.
Yadav sent down an incredible 355.5 overs in 12 games during the season. With conditions in India quite unfavourable for pacers, there is a possibility of Yadav suffering breakdown. However, Zaheer, who spearheaded the Indian attack for close to one decade said that the more a bowler bowls, the better he will get.
“You don’t have control over injuries. All you can do is prepare as best as you can for the matches. Personally, when I was playing, I preferred to play more and more matches,” he said.
“When you are in rhythm, you can maintain workload during practice and looking at that someone like Umesh, he is not going to realise when 20 overs have gone by. That’s the beauty of bowling fitness. With all bowlers playing Test matches and some level of cricket, it is easier in terms of bowling fitness. So more you bowl, better you will get. I always endorse match practice is best practice,” added the veteran of 95 Tests said.
He further said that the likes of Karun Nair and Shreyas Iyer will be able to compensate for the loss of JP Duminy and Quinton de Kock in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League.
“We have always believed in youngsters and kind of potential they had. For someone like Karun Nair, who has a triple centurion and Shreyas Iyer, who is now a part of the Test team. These youngsters are no longer youngsters. They are seasoned campaigners with some experience. Our squad is settled. We are sitting pretty despite JP and Quinton are not going to available for this season,” the skipper said.