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Umesh Yadav has not been a regular name in India's T20I squad. Despite a decent record in Indian Premier League (IPL), Umesh has never got a long rope in the T20I squad. However, his comebacks in T20I squad have a unique confidence.
Umesh made his T20I debut in August 12 and picked up one middle-order batter’s wicket against Sri Lanka in a winning cause. Umesh did not play another T20I that year. At times he was ignored but on other occasions injury led to him sitting out.
While he continued to play in ODIs, he played his next T20I after an extremely long gap of nearly six years which meant he missed India’s 65 T20Is. Umesh was picked for the Ireland series and picked up a couple of wickets on his return. He followed it up with five wickets in the three-T20I series against England. He played another T20I against West Indies. Next year, he played against Australia at home and remained wicketless.
Once again, Umesh made an entry into the T20I side, this time out of nowhere. Umesh got a chance because Mohammed Shami contracted Covid-19 which ruled him out of the T20I series against Australia.
Like his first comeback, his second comeback was after 65 T20Is as well. As skipper Rohit Sharma rested Jasprit Bumrah for the first T20I at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali on September 20, Umesh got a chance to play T20Is again.
So far, the 34-year-old has 9 wickets from seven T20Is at an average of 24.33 and an economy rate of 8.76 runs per over. In Indian Premier League (IPL), the Nagpur-born pacer has 135 wickets from 133 games at an average of 28.87 and an economy rate of 8.32. He had a decent IPL 2022 season where he picked up 16 wickets from 12 games at an average of 21.19 and economy rate of 7.06. Also, he registered his IPL-best bowling figures of 4/23 for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) against Punjab Kings (PBKS).
