T20: Will speed gun Mayank Yadav make his bow against Bangladesh?

A million-dollar question ahead of the India–Bangladesh T20 series, starting this Sunday (6 October) in Gwalior, is whether young speed gun Mayank Yadav will get a nod for any of the three matches scheduled.

His inclusion in the squad, irrespective of his chances of making the playing XI, has certainly infused a fair amount of curiosity value into what could have been just another bilateral series.  

It was one of the genuine selection surprises as the Men in Blue look to shift gears from the 2-0 sweep of the last Test series to their first T20 series at home after becoming world champions in the Caribbean.

The slightly built fast bowler from Delhi has made heads turn in the IPL 2024, regularly clocking 150-plus in a series of matches and claiming seven wickets from four games — before breaking down.

However, the injury he picked up could well have been a blessing in disguise.

Yadav's arrival like a bolt from the blue sent the Indian media into an initial tizzy with cries for him to be fast-tracked into the national team. Since then, staying away from the action for over three months gave him and the strength and conditioning experts at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru just the right window to work on the areas that made the 23-year-old so injury-prone.

Now, it seems they have been able to increase his workload in phases, ramping up his fitness gradually.

A short home series against Bangladesh has now been identified as the stage on which Yadav could be unleashed, though the news came as major surprise for the bowler and his family. Speaking to the Times of India, an ecstatic Yadav said recently: “I wasn’t aware of the selection. But I saw my mates here receiving congratulatory calls. I just checked the BCCI website and got to know my name was there.’’

Yadav immediately called his mother, and she was left in tears of happiness. “Once I put down the phone, I had flashbacks... from the day I first went to Sonnet Club to the four anxious months spent at the NCA to recover from frequent niggles,” he said in the interview.

When he joins the rest of the squad in Gwalior, there will be no dearth of a reassuring hands on his shoulders.

Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, has watched his evolution from his vantage point as a mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants during the IPL 2023, when India’s new fast bowling coach, Morne Morkel, was also with the IPL franchise.

A lot, of course, depends on Yadav himself. He must refrain from getting carried away with his ability to generate raw pace out of his whippy action. The example of Umran Malik’s burnout is fresh in everyone’s memory.

Gambhir, who showed a refreshing knack for spotting a good domestic talent when he saw one in his capacity as an IPL mentor, had a pragmatic piece of advice for Yadav during the 2023 season.

‘’He and Vijay Dahiya (former coach at LSG) had clearly told me that I would get my first game after one or two years,” said Yadav. ”When the opportunity came this year, I had to make it count. The day after my IPL debut, I got offers for my bowling shoes.

”As far as Morne is concerned, he doesn’t speak much. If he observes anything, then he will come and point it out. He will mostly talk about strategies.”

The next couple of weeks give Yadav a big opportunity to impress the white ball set-up and show Gambhir and Morkel that he is here to stay.

The fast bowling department, notwithstanding its current wave of success, has been over-reliant on the masterly Jasprit Bumrah. This is where a wicket-taking bowler like Mayank Yadav can make a difference!