The Indian cricket squad that will play the five-Test series against England has six specialist fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana. On top that, India also have two medium-pace allrounders Shardul Thakur and Nitish Kumar Reddy. Looking keenly at the series, like many other Indian cricket fans, will be Umesh Yadav. The veteran India star with an experience of 57 Tests (170 wickets) and 75 ODIs (106 wickets) last played an international match in 2023. Since then he has been sidelined due to injury and emergence of younger bowlers. 

Yadav still harbours the dream of making a comeback into the Indian team.  

“Efforts to make a comeback are complete,” Yadav told Sports Tak. “I cannot select myself. I will have to play some matches, get fit. To come back, I will have to play competitive cricket. My effort is to get fit and come back in the team,” he added.

Umesh added that playing for India was not something he dreamt about when he started playing cricket. 

“When I started playing cricket, I never thought that I will play this, I will play that, I would play for India. I am a natural fast bowler. I have been bowling fast since childhood. I never went to any academy or nets. That is why I never thought that I would play for India. I kept on playing. Someone told me to play this, someone told me to play that. While playing, the son of a coal miner is sitting here playing for India. I think some things that are meant to happen. I always say that fast bowlers are natural; you cannot turn someone into a fast bowler,” he said.