Having taken considerable strides in the development of his skills in pace, Mayank Yadav made a brilliant international debut, rattling Bangladesh second down and helped India win the first T20 of the three-match series, by 7 wickets. Mayank who is one of the fast bowlers, cannot only bowl at great pace but more importantly has the other thing that makes fast bowlers a real threat, the variations, and by the end of his 1st international game, he had wowed everyone due to his extremes. At the conclusion of the series opener, Mayank shared an interesting detail about coach Gautam Gambir, who reached out to him with some important info before his first match for the side.
“However, I was really looking forward to it, even though I was a little more on edge. The series was my return from the injury. I did not play injury, and straight away went into the debut, so that is why I was more on edge,” Yadav expressed during a talk with Jio Cinema post the game.
“The healing timeframe proved more difficult for me. A lot of things happened within the last four months. But more than me, it was tougher for the people who used to work with me,” he further added.
Mayank disclosed that he was more focused on taking the right lengths when bowling during the match rather than just trying to bowl faster. As it was his first international performance, the fast bowler was eager to control the flow of runs rather than try to bowl at an express pace.
“Today I concentrated more on my physique. Also, I was focused on hitting the right lengths instead of bowling quicker. I did not care for my speed. I just aimed at conceding as few runs as possible and delivering the ball at the right line and length.
“I did bowl the slower ones in the IPL as well but not much. I spoke to my captain and he told me to stick to my stalk ball and not to chase variations too much. But coming to Gwalior, the wicket was quite flat so I altered my pace,” he elucidated.
Sharing a critical preparation aspect, Mayank disclosed the head coach Gautam Gambhir told him not to over think his first international outing. Basics are basics, and that is precisely what Gambhir told him to stick to.
“Nothing more, he told me to stick to the fundamentals and go about doing what has worked for me before. He told me not to bother too much with experimentation or even the concept of it being an international game. The process was the important thing to follow,” Yadav concluded.
