Hyderabad: Snaring three wickets while conceding 83 runs in the 23 overs he sent down, Indian pacer Umesh Yadav has been the workhorse on Friday. Moreso since the track was flat and his pace partner Shardul Thakur had to leave the field owing to an injury, after sending down just 10 balls.
But he isn't complaining. “Had Shardul been there, it would have been more help. If he could have chipped in with a couple (of wickets), it would have helped, but you can't really do anything in these situations as this is part and parcel of the game,” the Vidarbha player said.
Once Shardul went off, Umesh was prepared for the increase in workload. “If he is not there, I will have to bowl his quota of overs too and I knew he was not going to come back. I didn't want negativity to creep inside me that we are now one bowler short,” he said.
So he decided to go for the wickets. “I had to take a chance. If I also try to contain runs, it will be difficult as the partnerships will only get bigger. My aim was to get as many wickets as possible and I just tried,” Umesh said.
Speaking about the conditions, Umesh said: “The wicket was flat and it was such a pitch where you couldn't have contained runs. As much as you try, the scoreboard kept ticking as they got the singles and doubles. We neither had conventional swing nor reverse.”
Echoing the views of other Indian cricketers of late, Umesh too felt the SG Test ball was not ideal. “If you are saying that lower order has scored runs, then you must realise that in India, with SG Test balls on these kind of flat tracks, you neither get pace nor bounce,” he said, adding, “all you can do is bowl one spot but then you will realise that nothing is happening even off the pitch nor is it swinging. So when middle and lower order come in they know that ball has become soft and it doesn't come at a pace... and batting becomes easier.”
“Tail-enders know it will neither swing nor reverse. You just have to wait for something to happen and keep trying. But you can't really do it on such a big ground, the ones and twos keep coming,” he said.
