For more than five months since the end of April, Mayank Yadav didn’t play a single competitive fixture. But what he had done for Lucknow Super Giants during his four appearances in IPL 2024 before a side strain cut his season short couldn’t be wished away easily.
Then only 21, Mayank cranked up the speed gun, touching speeds in excess of 150 kmph quite regularly on his way to seven wickets and consecutive Player of the Match awards against Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Among those six victims in those two fixtures were Jonny Bairstow, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green, each surprised by the pace the wiry lad generated from an uncomplicated action and the dramatic, unexpected acceleration once the ball hit the pitch.
The aura around Mayank was just beginning to grow when he was forced to sit out the rest of the tournament. It was a shattering blow to the young man, who had reason to believe he would be fast-tracked into international cricket. India had already allowed Umran Malik, the tearaway from Jammu & Kashmir, to run out of steam by not blooding him at the highest level when he was at his lethal best. They were determined to avoid a repeat with Mayank, until the untimely injury brought the entertainment to a temporary halt.
Mayank’s journey of rehabilitation isn’t too well documented. Suffice to say that at the National Cricket Academy, his return to play was monitored with great personal care by NCA head honcho VVS Laxman and his support group, helmed by fast-bowling coach Troy Cooley. The first objective was to get him to white-ball fitness; red-ball forays were a longer-term goal which could wait.
Once Mayank was passed fit white-ball by the NCA, Ajit Agarkar and his co-selectors wasted no time in including him for the three T20 Internationals against Bangladesh. It helped that when Mayank was in Lucknow initially, it was under the tutelage of current India head coach Gautam Gambhir and one of the assistant national coaches, Morne Morkel. They knew what made him tick, they knew what he brought to the table. Once he was available for selection, it was a no-brainer that he would cut his teeth in international cricket in Gwalior in the first of three T20Is on Sunday.
Mayank came with a lot of understandable hype, catalysed largely by his unmatched ability to generate express pace. Worldwide, pace has been an irresistible magnet; in India, where unalloyed speed isn’t commonplace, Mayank was hot property, but the big question was whether he could marry it with control, whether he could resist the temptation to believe all the hype about him.
How did Mayank Yadav perform on his India debut?
In four overs at the brand new Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium, Mayank reiterated that he is a talent worth investing in. His first delivery, a loosener if you like, was measured at 142 kmph; his next clocked 146. His first over was a maiden, to Towhid Hridoy, and he took a wicket with his eighth ball, having former Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah caught at deep point.
After a first spell of 2-1-3-1 that straddled the Powerplay, Mayank went for 15 in his third over, which can happen to the most seasoned in the 20-over game. He returned to bowl the 19th, where he regathered focus and conceded only three. By the end of the night, he had figures of 4-1-21-1; only two other Indians had bowled a maiden in their first T20I appearance, Agarkar and Mayank’s teammate Arshdeep Singh. As far as first appearances go, this was far from shabby.
Mayank would certainly have entertained nerves going into his first India outing. It also goes without saying that he will concede plenty more runs in time to come, because such is the nature of the 20-over format and such is the lot of those who bowl really quickly – his fastest ball on Sunday was 149.9 kmph. But already in his brief representative career which translates to 33 matches at the senior level, he has shown that he has the heart, the temperament, the intelligence and the smarts, not to mention the skills, to be a long-term India prospect.
In Gwalior, Mayank showed that there is more to him than just searing pace. He found movement in his first over, the sixth of the innings, and he bowled more than one well-disguised slower delivery. Even in this era of throwdown specialists and bowling machines, he was able to surprise Bangladesh’s batters with his additional pace. Suryakumar Yadav has labelled him the one with the X-Factor; Mayank is already well on his way to proving that that’s no empty boast from his first T20I captain.
