Tweaking my bowling grip helped immensely- Umesh Yadav

It is fair to say that Umesh Yadav has improved by leaps and bounds in the past few years with the red ball. The right-hander, who was earlier not selected for the home Test season was given an opportunity after Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out due to his lower-back injury. And, the Vidarbha Express didn’t disappoint. From bamboozling the stumps of the South Africans to wreaking havoc against Bangladesh, Yadav once again proved why he is such a lethal force with the SG ball on home soil.

So, what has changed? According to Umesh Yadav, tweaking his bowling grip has made a world of good to his bowling. Yadav admitted that his grip earlier allowed the balls to get deflected off the pads and runs down for a boundary. And, the changes are for everyone to see. No fast bowler has taken more wickets than Umesh (38 wickets at 13.86 since 2018), on home soil.

“Tweaking my bowling grip helped immensely. My grip was different earlier so one or two balls will swing while a couple of them would either get deflected from the legs or run down the leg side for boundaries as byes, so it was difficult to control in this grip.”

“So I spoke to my coaches and also while discussing within ourselves, I felt when I hold the ball properly, I have more control and chances of moving the ball. So my outswinger became consistent and I could also throw in a few inswingers after making that change.” Yadav said during a conversation with opener Rohit Sharma on BCCI.TV as quoted by SportStar.

Ishant Sharma also opened up about his bowling secrets

Meanwhile, Ishant Sharma, who became the first Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul with the pink ball revealed how changing his wrist-position has helped him create angles that have proceeded to make life difficult for the left-handers.

“I created angles in my bowling on the basis of my wrist position. If I come round the wicket to the left-hander, it will be more difficult for the batsman. Before that, I used to bowl but I couldn’t get the edge because it would land on stumps and would go out. Now I bowl at the stumps, so it becomes difficult for the batsman.” Ishant said.

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