England tour of India 2011

Umesh Yadav has a bright future : Akram

Legendary pacer Wasim Akram is impressed with young Indian fast bowler Umesh Yadav and said that Yadav has bright future for India.

Legendary pacer Wasim Akram is impressed with young Indian fast bowler Umesh Yadav and said that Yadav has bright future for India.

Yadav had taken two wickets against England in the first ODI, which India have won by 126 runs. He also clocked 145km/hr in the Hyderabad one-day and certainly he is the new "ray of hope" for India, who are struggling to find speedstars.

"Although the wicket was helpful, the inexperienced India bowlers bowled really well. (Ravichandran) Ashwin is hard to hit in such conditions. I do not see him lose his ODI spot in the days to come. Umesh (Yadav), I have said repeatedly, the guy has got pace and he runs in well. He has a very good yorker too. He has got a bright future for India," Akram said.

"It is now time India uses this set of bowlers with Varun Aaron in the mix as well. We saw the combination in England got thrashed so the selectors have made the correct decision to play this bunch of bowlers now," he added.

India have tasted its first international win after almost four months by giving a royal thrashing to England, Akram feels that Dhoni & Co. is only going to get better.

"India will only get better and better with each game. They have announced a strong comeback with this win. Even though the big players were missing, they looked like a team that gels well. Everything was working for them, they looked very good yesterday, the bowling changes, their effort on the field, everybody chipped in and they looked a confident side," he said.

Akram was full of praise for Indian skipper MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, who batted well on the difficult Hyderabad track.

"For such a big match, there should have been a flat wicket but it was a little bit up and down. We could see that when Kevin Pietersen was playing and missing the ball on a number of occasions. But hats off to (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni and Suresh Raina for lifting India from a tricky 120 for four to 300. All credit should go to India who were much better in all departments of the game," he said

Akram believes that inexperienced English bowling attack will struggle on flat Indian tracks in the absence of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

"England will definitely miss Anderson and Broad because those guys were crucial to England's dominance at home. In the sub-continent the bowlers who have not played here before will struggle. England's true test was always going to be in India and if their bowlers continue to give away 300 runs, I do not think India will give them a chance," said Akram.