Umesh Yadav took five on his Punjab debut, and he says Vidarbha’s coach wanted him out of the picture
The 38-year-old says Mohammed Shami got backing from Bengal that he never had at Vidarbha, and wants India’s selectors to tell senior players where they stand.
Oct 14, 2026
Umesh Yadav has had a busy week for a 38-year-old who has not played for India since 2023. On Monday he finished with 5 for 70 on his Ranji Trophy debut for Punjab. Since then he has been explaining, at some length, why he is no longer at Vidarbha, the side he had played for since his first-class debut in 2008.
His answer in an interview with Times Now was blunt. After coming back from injury, he said, Vidarbha did not give him the support he needed, and the coach was glad to see the last senior player go. “It was more about getting Umesh out of the picture,” he said. Umesh did not name the coach. Players usually save this sort of thing for after they retire, not for the week of a five-wicket haul.
Shami got support, he says
Umesh used Mohammed Shami as the comparison. Both fast bowlers have had Achilles problems and both have dropped out of India’s plans. Umesh said his injury was the worse of the two: the tendon ruptured and had to be stitched back with a graft, and the rehab took a full year. Shami, he said, came back with the backing of Bengal. “I got the opposite,” he said.
That is a hard line to take about the team that gave him his first-class debut and kept him for the best part of two decades. It also explains why he went looking for a new side. When the move was announced earlier this month he told the Hitavada he wanted to join a big team that was doing well in domestic cricket, and that people in Vidarbha cricket had been saying he would only get a chance with a small team from the Northeast.
A message for the selectors
The bigger point Umesh wanted to make was about how India’s selectors deal with senior players. He wants selection decided by performance and fitness rather than age, and he wants players told where they stand. If a selector has made up his mind, Umesh said, he should tell the player, because that is better than leaving him living in false hope. “Who doesn’t want to make a comeback?” he asked.
He has played 57 Tests, with 170 wickets, as well as 75 ODIs and nine T20Is. The last of those Tests was the 2023 World Test Championship final against Australia. Since then the pace attack has moved on, and Umesh spent nearly two years without a first-class game before this one.
Five wickets in New Chandigarh
He did his own argument no harm against Assam at the PCA stadium in New Chandigarh. He bowled opener Rishav Das for a duck and got rid of Rajveer Singh, then came back to clean up Amlanjyoti Das, Mukhtar Hussain and Mohit Thakur as Assam were all out for 373. His 5 for 70 came from 24 overs across the first two days, and it was the 16th five-wicket haul of his first-class career.
Punjab have a new head coach this season in Amit Uniyal, who has said the side needs bowlers who can take 20 wickets to do better in red-ball cricket. Umesh turns 39 on 25 October. “I don’t think it’s ever too late,” he said.