Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav: two different approaches and two different results
Bharath Ramaraj
“Survival of the fittest” is a famous biological term coined by Herbert Spencer. In a rather curious way, this phrase can also serve as a microcosm of our day-to-day lives. Just consider the recently concluded fourth T20I between India and the West Indies in Hyderabad. India, the home side, had two promising pace bowlers: Prince Yadav and Mayank Yadav.
As it turned out, the pace duo had contrasting experiences. Prince finished up with noteworthy figures of 1 for 36 in 4 overs on what was virtually a motorway. Unfortunately, Mayank went for more than 20 runs in his final over and his eventual figures read: 0 for 52.
For a moment, peel the outside half of their respective bowling methods, and the aforesaid biological term can be applied. Mayank, the tall fast bowler, seems to have an ultra-attacking mindset, in the sense that he mostly looks to employ genuine pace, extra bounce and a little bit of nip off the wicket to dismantle the opponent.
In Hyderabad, such a template was noticeable right through his short spells. In the second over, he tried to bounce out Shai Hope and it turned out to be five wides. In his final over, from round the wicket, when he attempted a hard-length ball, Sherfane Rutherford sent it sailing over the boundary rope.
The truth to be said Mayank did try to vary his pace. But his off-cutter just seemed to sit up and for it to be thumped by the West Indian power-hitters. On a brighter note, in this series, Mayank has found a hint of nip even on batting paradises. Unfortunately, modern-day limited-overs cricket doesn’t always reward genuine wicket-taking fast bowlers. It also demands the fast bowler to base his game on ultra-defensive skills.
In that context, let’s also zoom in on the template of Prince. The unassuming cricketer just kept it simple in the Hyderabad T20I: Prince bowled to his fields by using wide yorkers or very full deliveries that were ushered in wide of off-stump. He largely succeeded in that endeavour too. Occasionally, he also blended it with into-the-pitch slower ones; a skill that he employed with a fair degree of success in last year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy.
To further gauge Prince’s mindset, let’s also zero in on one of his statements from last year. “In my opinion, if the yorker is executed perfectly, then it is difficult to land any shot,” he had said to Revsportz. “I don’t think what the batsman is thinking, I believe if I get the yorker right, then the batsman won’t be able to hit it.”
Basically, Prince has come through the cricketing stables by partaking in plenty of tennis-ball tournaments and short-form cricket. Somewhere his brain seems to have been hard-wired to bowl wide yorkers in white-ball formats.
The crux of their respective approaches is that Prince adapted reasonably well to the demanding T20 landscape in Hyderabad. At the other end of the spectrum, Mayank’s ultra-aggressive approach needs some fine-tuning for the fast bowler to carve out a path in the abridged versions of the game.
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