Published By: Saksham Mishra

Umesh Yadav, a beast on Indian tracks

Umesh Yadav is more effective on Indian tracks than he is overseas.

Sensational at home

Over the years, Umesh Yadav has become a sort of home specialist. Not that he has not had fine performances away from home, but his consistency overseas has been a bit on and off.

But, when it comes to the conditions of India, which are generally not the best for pacers, Umesh Yadav has stood out. His length, skiddy nature and pace makes him a perfect pace bowler for the Indian conditions.

The king of reverse

To add to that, when the ball begins to reverse swing, he goes on a completely different level altogether.

Umesh Yadav has 98 wickets at home at an average of 25.16 and a strike rate of 47.26 as opposed to 58 wickets away from home at an average of 39.67 and a strike rate of 59.55.

Captain's backing

One can clearly see the difference between the two stats and how Umesh Yadav cherishes the Indian conditions. Even Test captain Virat Kohli has nothing but praise for the likes of Umesh Yadav on the effort which he puts on Indian pitches.

"If you look at Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami, their strike rate is probably the best in Indian conditions in history, which tells you that these guys hit the stumps and the pads more than anyone else before them. It's again a great sign of the kind of intent that the bowlers are running in with now. The fitness levels obviously have gone up, so your brain is obviously supporting what you want to do, because your body also will support that workload. These guys are relentless, they're running in to just take wickets, bowl in areas that make batsmen uncomfortable."

"As fast bowlers, if you feel like there's nothing in the pitch but we can make something happen, you will make it happen, because that's the kind of effort you want to bowl with. If you look at a pitch and you just give up, then you're getting nothing out of it, so it's the mindset. They want to make things happen, they don't want easy cricket, they don't want easy situations, they want to have things which are challenging, and then they try to come on top, because it's going to do the team a lot of good if you do well in difficult scenarios."