Of Indian fast bowlers with 100 Test wickets on home soil, no one has a better average or strike rate than Umesh Yadav’s 25.88 and 48 respectively. However, he is not part of the the Indian squad for the first two Tests of the five-match series against England, to begin in January 2024.

India prefer a two-seamer strategy at home; Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and when fit, Mohammed Shami, are obvious picks, while the selectors have Mukesh Kumar as backup. With Prasidh Krishna and Avesh Khan also seemingly ahead in pecking order, time seems to be running out for the 36-year-old Umesh.

However, Umesh demonstrated that he has some cricket left in him after Akshay Wadkar opted to bat at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur.

He had Vishwaraj Jadeja caught when the latter attempted an expansive drive. A ball held his line, took Sheldon Jackson’s edge, and flew to second slip, while Arpit Vasavada was caught behind.

But Umesh reserved his best for Prerak Mankad who, not anticipating that the ball would move as much as it did, was squared up. The ball pitched on a length, deviated just enough to take the outside edge, and went to Wadkar’s big gloves.

Umesh finished with 4-56 as the defending champions were bowled out for 206. However, in response, the hosts folded for only 78 against Chirag Jani (4-14). Once again Umesh led the attack with 3-42, but Saurashtra piled 244 as Cheteshwar Pujara, another Test reject, followed his first-innings 43 with 66.

Chasing 373 for victory, Vidarbha lost Dhruv Shorey early. At the time of writing, they were 26-1.

Watch Umesh Yadav claim 4-56 against Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy:

Fantastic Four-fer 🙌@y_umesh bowled a superb spell of 4/56 to help Vidarbha bowl Saurashtra out for 206. 👌👌

Watch 📹 his cracking spell 🔽@IDFCFIRSTBank | #RanjiTrophy pic.twitter.com/h7Q81Wr1Zt

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 19, 2024