Talented fast bowlers are often told to trade-off pace for more variations but Mayank Yadav received golden advice early in his career from his illustrious Delhi senior Ishant Sharma — never compromise on speed to acquire other skills.
The Lucknow Super Giants pacer has already bowled this IPL season’s fastest delivery (156.7kmph), against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday, and in a conversation with Jio Cinema, spoke about the tips he got from Ishant and Navdeep Saini.
Mayank’s spell of 4-0-14-3 earned him a second straight Player-of-the-Match award this season. Last week, the 21-year-old finished with 3/27 in his debut innings for the Super Giants.
“All the bowlers I spoke to in Delhi, Ishant bhai and Saini bhai, they all told me that
even if I wanted to try anything new, I should play around my speed. If I want to add a new skill, it should be around my speed and that I don’t need to add any skills that
could compromise my speed,” said Mayank.
“My attention isn’t on speed as much as it is on taking wickets and contributing to the team by taking wickets. However, it’s always in the back of my mind that when I am bowling deliveries, I need to put pace behind them.
“After a match, I always ask people what the highest speed was but during the match, I am only focused on my bowling.”
Former Australia cricketer Tom Moody feels that Mayank should be in the squad for the T20 World Cup squad.
“He is definitely in the conversation. Whether you take that risk punting on him or not is another conversation... is it someone who is a Powerplay bowler, or someone who has the ability to bowl at the death, all those subtle skillsets are important,” Moody said on ESPNcricinfo.
