Lucknow Super Giants fast bowler Mayank Yadav has become the talk of the town after producing brilliant performances against Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. He impressed on his debut with three crucial wickets and against RCB, he was once again the top performer with the ball as he took the important wickets of Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar and Glenn Maxwell. Mayank's performances has put him in the conversation for a possible spot in India's T20 World Cup 2024 squad but former Australian cricket team batter Matthew Hayden came up with a plan to tackle the youngster's rapid pace.
"One of the things that happens in this competition is that all eye balls, all those great players watching him, they are working out strategies of how they are going to play him. If you bang it on length and the pace is fast, it's tough to hit. And the way you've to play someone of that pace is that you need to allow the ball to come to you. Not try to force it off the front foot or back foot. Just absorb the pressure and the ball will do the rest because of the pace of the delivery," Hayden said.
Australia cricketer Steve Smith, who was also part of the discussion, also said that the lack of slow deliveries till now is something that batter can look to exploit against Mayank in the future.
"If you look at all those balls, there wasn't one slower balls there, so you don't have to worry about that at this stage. He might have it in his armoury, we haven't seen it yet but you can probably trust to get inside the line or maybe give a bit of room and use the pace and let it come to you," Smith said.
Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody said that Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pacer Mayank Yadav is in the conversation for the ICC T20 World Cup, which will take place in West Indies/USA from June 1.
A three-wicket haul by Mayank and a barrage of top-class pace bowling destroyed the RCB top order and helped LSG hand the home side their third loss at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.
Following LSG's win, Moody said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo that Mayank is in the conversation for the tournament, since it is important to consider the skillsets needed for the tournament during powerplay and death overs.
"He is definitely in the conversation. Whether you take that risk punting on him or not is another conversation because you also need to consider what skillset you need in that reserve fast bowler - is it someone who is a powerplay bowler, or someone who has the ability to bowl at the death, all those subtle skillsets are important when you are talking about a T20 World Cup," said Moody.
(With ANI inputs)