3 min readUpdated: Mar 23, 2026 10:21 PM IST
Express Indian pacer Mayank Yadav opened up about his interactions with star Indian bowler Jasprit Bumrah, whose tips helped him during his rehabilitation following a string of career-threatening injuries and subsequent surgery.
“Everything has changed for me post-surgery. Earlier, I never used to take care of myself. Whenever I had to do a recovery session, I used to avoid it and neglect many aspects,” Mayank told JioStar’s ‘IPL Today Live’. “But after the surgery, I paid a lot of attention to recovery, nutrition and sleep. The more I respect my body, the more my body respects me on the field.”
“When I was in rehab at the NCA, Bumrah bhaiyya was also there. I have a very good bonding with him. He is like a teacher to me. He also had the same surgery, the same scenario,” he said.
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The 23-year-old tearaway pacer has endured a series of injuries, starting with a major setback during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, followed by a serious back issue that ruled him out of the remainder of IPL 2025. He is now set to return for Lucknow Super Giants after completing rehabilitation at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.
During his rehabilitation, Mayank said interactions with Bumrah — who also underwent a similar surgery — helped him understand recovery better. “Bumrah bhaiyya shared his experience of how to come back after surgery and what things to pay attention to. He told me how the body will be during recovery, how it will react. Sometimes it will feel good, sometimes not. Whenever we talk on call or messages, he shares his experience as much as possible,” he said.
Playing for LSG, Mayank had bowled the fastest delivery by an Indian in IPL 2024. The Lucknow-based franchise has retained Mayank for IPL 2026 for INR 11 crore.
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The 23-year-old says he was never inclined towards spin and had always wanted to bowl express pace since childhood.
“With fast bowling, things are always a little dicey whether you can do it or not. There is a lot of stress on the body, physically and mentally. When I used to play in the streets, I didn’t know how to bowl spin so I used to bowl only fast bowling. My craze for fast bowling began since childhood. My father also used to show me a lot of fast bowling videos. Mostly, when India used to play in South Africa, I used to watch a lot of those matches. I really liked two of their pacers, our current bowling coach Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn. Through them, I got the craze to bowl fast,” he said.
