New Delhi: Speedster Umesh Yadav asserted Tuesday that the Indian pace attack has the ability to take 20 wickets in a Test match during its tour of South Africa, seen by many as the side’s litmus test following a string of successes at home.
“The wickets in South Africa will put the focus back on the fast bowling unit and rightly so. There will be a lot of expectations from us and I believe this attack has the ability to get 20 South African wickets. All of us had a good 14 months at home and it’s time to translate into overseas success,” Umesh told this agency during an interview.
“I believe good fitness, proper plans were key to our success in the sub-continent. But the main thing is the attitude with which you enter the field. If we can maintain it in South Africa, no one can stop us,” added the pacer man, who is one shy of completing 100 Test wickets.
In spite of experts asking Umesh to bowl a line when batsmen don’t let go of deliveries too often, the bowler stated that he would stick to that line as like Kapil Dev, the outswinger is his stock delivery and he doesn’t want to lose it by bowling more inswingers.
“My natural delivery is the outswinger. If I try to bowl too many incoming deliveries, it can lead to me losing my outswinger, which I don’t want. Obviously, there will be a few change-ups with incoming deliveries but the outswinger remains my core strength,” asserted Umesh.
Umesh also informed that unlike on earlier occasions when Indian pacers got carried away with their line when they got pacer-friendly wickets, it won’t happen again.
“During earlier tours, we were younger and expectedly more excited. But now, all of us – Ishant (Sharma), (Mohammed Shami), Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and myself know how to curb our over enthusiasm. We will be assessing the conditions and bowling accordingly,” Umesh informed.
Press Trust of India
