The start of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) season witnessed the revival of India’s 34-year-old star, who was once and integral part of the Men in Blue even until 2018 before falling out of contention completely and subsequently losing a spot in the 2019 ODI World Cup team. Recalling the big downfall in his white-ball career, Kolkata Knight Riders’ new star Umesh Yadav admitted that he failed to comprehend how quickly things changed around him after he finished 2015 ODI World Cup as India’s highest wicket-taker.
In eight matches in the tournament, Umesh had picked 18 wickets at 17.38 and with a strike rate of 21.4. He was India’s highest wicket-taker in the tournament and second overall after Trent Boult (22) and Mitchell Starc (22). It also remains the joint second-most by an Indian bowler in a single World Cup edition, tied alongside Roger Binny (18 wickets in 1983), and standing only behind Zaheer Khan’s tally of 21 wickets in 2011 edition.
However, post that tournament, Umesh was seen in and out of the side before losing his place in the ODI team and in the build-up to the 2019 World Cup, he barely featured in the side.
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Speaking to KKR on losing his place in India’s white-ball team, Umesh said, “My real journey in white-ball cricket started after 2014. I felt bad when I faced this downfall in my career when I was in and out of India’s white-ball team. People suddenly started labelling me that ‘he is not a white-ball bowler’. And I when that started happening I felt like how can things change so suddenly. At one point in my career I was the highest wicket-taker for in the 2015 World Cup and then suddenly everything changed.”
In 2018, after his sensational season with Royal Challengers Bangalore, Umesh made a T20I comeback six years after his debut in the format, but soon lost his place.
However 2022 has witnessed a new Umesh Yadav, who has already picked eight wickets for KKR in three games at an average of just 7.37 and with a strike rate of 9.
Umesh also looked back at his journey as a cricketer.
“From where I belong, there will be very few boys who believe that they could play for India. Playing and dreaming about cricket was expensive for them. Kit, bat, pad, shoes, etc. you just can’t do it because you live in coal mines, your father goes to coal mines and does hard work. At that time I had never thought I would play for India as it was beyond my imagination,” he said.