The fiery Indian pacer, Umesh Yadav will be plying his trade for the English County side Middlesex for the rest of the 2022 season, the team announced on Monday. Umesh has signed the contract for the team’s remaining campaign in the County Championship, and then in the Royal London Cup one-day tournament. The club’s Head of Men’s Performance Cricket, Alan Coleman confirmed that Umesh will be a good addition to the squad after the departure of Pakistan pace spearhead Shaheen Afridi.
“It was always our intention to have an overseas international bowler with us throughout the duration of the season, and since Shaheen returned to Pakistan prior to the start of our Blast campaign we’ve been looking for the right player to replace him,” said the club’s Head of Men’s Performance Cricket, Alan Coleman.
“Yadav is that man. He comes to us with a wealth of experience, he is a proven world-class performer, and can not only make a huge difference himself for the remainder of our Championship campaign and to our prospects in the Royal London Cup but will also be a fantastic role model for our younger bowlers to work alongside.”
Yadav was not initially named in Middlesex’s squad to face Worcestershire this week at Merchant Taylors’ School and the Club has delayed announcing his arrival until receiving confirmation that his visa had been approved. This morning the Club received this confirmation, and confirmation that he is registered with the ECB, and Yadav has, as a result, now been named as an addition to Middlesex’s squad for this week’s game.
The Nagpur-born seamer, 34, has played 134 times for India, in 52 Tests, 77 One Day Internationals, and 7 International T20s, in which he has taken 273 wickets for his country. In total, he has over 650 career wickets to his name across all three formats of the game and has a best international return of 6 for 88 for India, which he picked up against the West Indies in the Hyderabad Test of 2018.
Umesh becomes the fourth Indian to feature in the ongoing season of the English domestic cricket circuit. Earlier, all-rounders Krunal Pandya and Washington Sundar had been signed by Warwickshire and Lancashire respectively. Batter Cheteshwar Pujara had plundered runs while playing Sussex before being selected in the Indian squad for the their fifth Test against England.
