India’s pace bowler Umesh Yadav is now eyeing a long stint in county cricket to stay in the game. However, he does not feature in the white-ball set-up now and wants a use that time as well.

“Workload management is a balance that you strike when you are constantly playing matches. In my case, it’s been the opposite. I have played lesser and lesser in the past two years (2018 and 2019). So there hasn’t even been optimum workload for me,” Umesh said.

“I am 31 years old and the next four to five years are very important. If you look at my record. I played four Tests last year (2019) and before that another four in 2018. In white ball, I played only one game last year. At this age, the more I bowl, the better I will get. That’s why I am playing five first-class (one vs Saurashtra after this game) to have some more workload,” said the pacer.

“So in a World T20 year, after New Zealand tour, I have only IPL left and then no cricket. If I am not selected for white-ball cricket, I have precious little to do then,” said Umesh, who took 23 wickets in 4 Tests in 2019.

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“I got a county offer last season (from Gloucestershire). They wanted me to play seven games but the BCCI workload management policy doesn’t allow me to play more than two or three games. So the deal didn’t work out. Also I had some niggles to take care of after IPL,” he added.

However, he would not mind playing county cricket this year as well.

“The concern about county cricket is that if they have a professional playing for them, they would hand over the ball to him and expect that bowler to send down maximum overs. I don’t think you can go into a game thinking about that you will bowl a stipulated number of overs. If my body permits and situation demands, I can bowl 25 overs in a day also,” said Umesh Yadav.