Umesh Yadav In Ranji Trophy: Experienced fast bowler Umesh Yadav, who has been out of the Indian cricket team for a long time, has made a great start in the new season of Ranji Trophy 2026-27. After breaking the historical relationship with Vidarbha for almost 18 years, this veteran pacer, who came in the jersey of Punjab team, created a stir by taking five wickets in his debut match. On the second day of the Elite Group-B match being played against Assam in New Chandigarh, Umesh broke the back of the opposition batting and took 5 wickets.
Clean bowled 3 batsmen
In this match, Umesh Yadav took the aggressive line from the beginning while sharing the new ball with young fast bowler Gurnoor Brar. In this innings, Umesh Yadav spent 70 runs while bowling 24 overs and completed his 16th five-wicket haul in first class cricket. He first gave the first blow to Assam’s opener Rishabh Das by bowling him without opening the account in 11 balls. After this, the pressure was increased by dismissing Rajveer Singh for just 11 runs.
In the lower order, Umesh showed the way to the pavilion one after the other to Amlanjyoti Das, Mukhtar Hussain and Mohit Thakur. The most important thing was that out of his 5 wickets, 3 wickets came directly by uprooting the stumps, which proves that despite his increasing age, there has been no decrease in his speed and swing. Due to his brilliant bowling, Assam’s first innings was limited to 373 runs in 117 overs.
Why did Umesh Yadav leave Vidarbha and join Punjab?
The separation of Umesh Yadav from Vidarbha, who had the experience of 124 first class matches, had become a topic of discussion in domestic cricket. Recently he had revealed the reason behind this decision. Umesh had said, ‘I was looking for a big team which was performing well in the domestic circuit. While leaving Vidarbha, there were talks that I would get a chance to play only for a small team. But I decided that I will play with a team which is strong and playing excellent cricket.