Virat Kohli’s aggressive brand of captaincy suits the team in all formats, feels Umesh Yadav

Virat Kohli’s aggressive brand of captaincy suits the team in all formats, feels Umesh Yadav

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Virat Kohli celebrating a wicket with Umesh Yadav

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Umesh Yadav was high on praise for Virat Kohli and stated that his aggressive brand of captaincy has been extremely beneficial for the team in all three formats of the game. Yadav has further asserted that bowlers will have to adapt quickly on the ‘flatter’ wickets in UAE come IPL 2020.

Nine years into his international career, Umesh Yadav might not have had success like Mohammed Shami or Jasprit Bumrah, but the relentlessness of his approach has been a constant over the years, which has made him relevant in Indian cricket after all these years. His ability to hit the deck hard and generate reverse swing in unhelpful Indian conditions made him Virat Kohli’s go-to-man in the sub-continent and he duly responded with some fine performances when others failed to do any of that. Naturally, that created a good working relationship between him and Virat Kohli, which the former acknowledged ahead of the IPL 2020.

“Virat is a fast bowler's captain. “His (Virat’s) aggressive brand of captaincy suits the team in all formats. Fast bowlers, especially in Twenty20 cricket, enter with an aggressive mindset. It is about maintaining an attacking attitude and not a defensive one. When you are always looking to take wickets, your head is in the right place,” Umesh told Sportstar.

Given the fact that Royal Challengers Bangalore have their model set up according to the batting paradise of Chinnaswamy stadium, it might become a consensus for them to adapt to the slow and low conditions in UAE. However, now that they have had a few practice sessions in Dubai already, they must have a fair bit of idea on how to approach things in the upcoming tournament. Umesh Yadav feels that the practice sessions have been extremely handy in terms of getting back to the old rhythm as well

“Going by the number of net sessions we've had here so far, the practice wickets have been a bit sticky, slightly on the flatter side. If there is no seam or swing movement and there is no pace off the pitch, then you need to hit the deck hard to extract pace. It depends on what kind of surfaces we get once the tournament begins: if it's medium but slow and gets slower as the match progresses, then we have to adapt accordingly,” Yadav added.

“Your training schedule in the lead-up to a competitive match matters a lot... I am satisfied with my preparation. The regular exercise sessions at home have helped maintain many facets of my physical fitness. For a fast bowler, balance and rhythm are critical. So, I also ran a lot to master those aspects. Another four to five sessions, and I will be gearing up towards match intensity.”

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