“He was the best medium pacer in this innings” – Dinesh Karthik on Umesh Yadav

Dinesh Karthik has praised India pace spearhead Umesh Yadav for his decent outing against Bangladesh in their second innings of the ongoing Chattogram Test on Day 4 (Saturday, December 17).

The veteran credited Yadav for breaking the 124-run opening partnership between Najmul Hossain Shanto and Zakir Hasan. He reckoned that Umesh also looked lethal with the second new ball as he gave stiff competition to Mushfiqur Rahim.

Speaking on Cricbuzz, Karthik said:

“To be fair, he was the best medium pacer in this innings for sure. He created opportunities even with the second new ball. That’s what you expect from fast bowlers."

"He’s been around for a long time now and again he’ll know these conditions well. He’s been here since 2010, that’s 12 years of international cricket. So, he is one of the senior pros there.”

Karthik also believes that Yadav is venomous owing to his ability to reverse swing the ball at the last minute, especially in sub-continent conditions. He said:

“His stats are fabulous in Asian conditions or rather Indian conditions mainly because of his skill to reverse the ball. He generally gets the ball to outswing with the new ball and when the ball starts reversing, he becomes very venomous because he’s somebody who has ace speed.”

He continued:

“When you have ace speed, reverse swing happens a lot later than normal swing and that’s where he’s got a lot of wickets.”

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“He’s always been the bridesmaid and never been the bride” – Dinesh Karthik on Umesh Yadav

Karthik also feels that Umesh Yadav has always been an exceptional bowler but couldn’t make a name for himself because he is inaccurate at times. He, however, credited him for delivering for India on a dead wicket against the hosts on Day 4.

On this, he said:

“In many ways, he's the spearhead of the attack even though he’s always been the bridesmaid and never been the bride but credit to him for the way he bowled today, showed his character on a dead wicket when there was absolutely no assistance for him to come and bowl good reverse swing. Was good to watch.”

Karthik also pointed out that Yadav is among the rare bowlers who haven't lost pace even after playing for more than a decade after his debut. He said:

“A solid guy to have on the team and his strength over a period of time has been his fitness. You don’t see many cricketers start a career 12 years ago, bowling 150 or 140 clicks and still be the same after 10-12 years. Credit to him for that.”

The speedster will look to take a few more wickets on Day 5 against Bangladesh as KL Rahul and Co. look to wrap up the Test as quickly as possible.