Jonty Rhodes, the fielding coach for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), has disclosed that the team’s former pace bowling coach, Morne Morkel, views Mayank Yadav as a valuable asset due to his impressive speed. Rhodes mentioned that Morkel likened Yadav to the legendary South African pacer Allan Donald.
In fact, Mayank made his IPL appearances for Lucknow based franchise in 2024. This 22 years old impressed everyone with raw pace bowling at an even 150 km/h. However, he only featured in four matches and took seven wickets including three against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
While playing against Gujarat Titans (GT) Mayank got injured because he had lower abdomen pain which made him miss several matches. Hinting on IPL 2025 retentions, Rhodes praised Super Giants that despite injury restrictions they let this young talent stay with them while being rehabilitated. Recently the 55-year-old told IANS (via Mid-Day):
“I’m not a bowling coach, but Morne Morkel, during the previous season, when Mayank got injured at the start of the preparation, literally Morne said, ‘Wow, this guy (Mayank Yadav), he’s like the Rolls Royce of bowlers, similar to how we used to call Allan Donald a Rolls Royce. He is LSG’s Rolls Royce.”
“He had a whole season with the team and that’s why the owners decided to keep him with the team, he did all his rehab throughout the IPL and stayed a part of the unit because we really believe that he is a young guy with extreme talent and we saw him in the games that he played and everybody was really monitoring him not wrapping him in cotton wool,” Rhodes added.
Mayank Yadav set the record for the fastest delivery in IPL 2024, clocking 156.7 kmph against RCB.
“We saw what happened with Umran Malik” – Jonty Rhodes advises LSG to manage Mayank Yadav with caution
During a recent interaction, Jonty Rhodes advised LSG to handle Mayank Yadav with care to avoid the similar circumstances that befell on Umran Malik. For him, pace isn’t the only thing that Mayank should emphasize; he should also address line and length.
He said: “We saw what happened with Umran Malik who burst onto the scenes at sheer pace we all got excited, but you know the question is can the player bowl to the game plan that’s because they’re bowling some of the best batters in the world and sometimes on really good surfaces so if you’ve just got pace and you can’t bowl in good areas or with good skill, the better players will hit you out the ground.”
He added: “So I think from a point of view where LSG haven’t worried about, or haven’t gone, let’s wrap him in cotton wool, because then he comes to the game, you never know what’s going to happen.
“But the preparation is key and hopefully, you know, through the season when the off season and now the season again by the time he comes to IPL and if he’s playing with LSG again or even if he’s not playing for LSG I just hope Mayank is bowling and is fit for the whole IPL because there’s a talent that is exciting.”
Worth noting is that Malik had a breakthrough IPL 2022 season where he took 22 wickets but only got five in eight games with an economy of 10.85 in 2023.
In IPL 2024, the fast bowler from Kashmir played only a single over and conceded 15 runs. His absence from the playing XI was due to being overshadowed by players like skipper Pat Cummins, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Jaydev Unadkat, and Marco Jansen.
However, it is still with the realm of possibility for SunRisers Hyderabad to hold onto Umran Malik for the IPL 2025 season even as LSG looks set to keep Mayank Yadav.
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