Umesh Yadav is fit, he bowls fast, can bowl the long spells: Virender Sehwag

The four-match Border-Gavaskar Test series is set to kick off on December 17 at Adelaide. The first of four Test matches will be a pink-ball D/N (Day and Night) Test. 

Speaking at Extra Innings show on Sony Sports Network, former India captain Virender Sehwag voiced his opinion on who should be considered as Team India's third pacer in the Tests. Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer, Umesh Yadav has been one of the most underrated bowlers of Indian bowling unit over the recent time.

"Absolutely. He (Umesh Yadav) is fit, he bowls fast, can bowl the long spells. So I feel that he should be played," Sehwag said during a discussion on the Sony Sports network.

Umesh Yadav: A genuine wicket-taker 

"But I have been his fan as well, that he should be played in white-ball cricket also. No doubt he has the wicket-taking ability although he might bowl one or two bad balls in an over. But the ball he delivers at the right spot, at times it is unplayable," he opined.

Umesh's swing can trouble the Aussie batsmen

"When he had come for the first time in the Australia tour of 2008, he used to bowl in the nets. I used to tell him just the one thing, that on these Australian pitches if you keep bowling on the good length regularly then you can trouble the batsmen because he gets the swing," he said.

Umesh Yadav's numbers in Test cricket

Matches: 45

Wickets: 142

Average: 30.26

5W: 3

Best figures: 6/88

"So in all these years he had to do just the one thing, that he bowls all the six deliveries at the same spot, then he can trouble the batsmen in Test cricket. We have seen Pollock, Hoggard, Glenn McGrath and Gillespie - all these people just used to bowl in one corridor and used to trouble the batsmen," he concluded.