The Indian cricket team has increasingly, over the years, become difficult to be consistently part of.
Talking on this matter, former India bowling coach Bharat Arun has recalled an incident where not including Umesh Yadav in the team for a match would leave him “angry” and “disappointed”.
“There are many instances when Umesh was disappointed not being part of the team especially after doing very well. But I had a lot of explaining to do because he would come up to me and say, ‘Why have you dropped me? What wrong did I do?’ It was a very tough call because there are only that many fast bowlers you could play in terms of what they had done and their form, especially when Shami, Bumrah and Ishant were the fast bowlers with Hardik Pandya to chip in as the fourth fast bowler back when he was playing Test cricket. Umesh was bowling beautifully but was consistently being dropped,” Arun recalled.
Arun hailed Umesh as a “perfect team man” saying that Umesh would be left furious at the selection choices and would not speak to him for a day but would eventually return having understood the situation.
“Sometimes he would get so angry that he would not speak to me for a day but then he would come to me and say I understand. Even when I speak to him I say, ‘If you are not angry, there is something wrong with you. If it doesn’t happen, you are accepting things meekly.’ Umesh was magnificent. He was a perfect team man that you would want to have in your side.”
