Umesh Yadav says Zaheer mentors him well

Indian pace bowler Umesh Yadav has praised Zaheer Khan for mentoring him well and has revealed that without his senior's assistance he had nothing more than mere speed to rely on.

"I didn't know anything much besides bowling fast. Since I started bowling with Zak Bhai, he told me that with my pace, if I can gain a bit of control over the ball, I'll be a much better bowler and I'll get many more wickets."

The Australia tour proved to be a huge learning experience for the young pace bowler and he worked hard on gaining control over the ball in the latter part of the series. "That's what I did in the latter part of the Australia tour - concentrated more on my line and length than earlier. He had ingrained in me the length that I had to hit, and I constantly kept that in mind before every delivery. I'm still working on it and I have a long way to go," Yadav said.

International cricket requires players to think on their feet and learn quickly and that is exactly the sort of advice that Zaheer dished out for the youngster, "He told me the sooner you learn from your mistakes, the better you'll get. I always keep that in mind and try not to repeat my mistakes," Yadav added.

The tour to 'Down Under' was a woeful one for India, however, Yadav still managed to see the positive side of it, ""As a team, we didn't do too well but when I returned home, the only thing I kept in mind was to keep up with the way I bowled there and keep improving on it every day.

I was very happy to be going to Australia. It's a dream of every fast bowler to bowl on Australian wickets. I'm very thankful to Zaheer-bhai," he told BCCI's official website after India's win against New Zealand in the first Test.

Talking about the New Zealand series, Yadav mentioned that the focus on the part of the bowlers was to keep the ball in the right areas, "The wicket was not turning that much. Our spinners worked really hard for their wickets.

But yes, when bowling on such slow and low wickets, we just try to keep pitching the ball on one side of the wicket consistently. That's what Zaheer bhai and I did, we just kept bowling the same line and our spinners did the rest of the job."

Yadav also realises that he still lacks as much experience as someone like an Ishant Sharma but justifies that he gets along quite well with the fellow pacer, "In this series, Ishant is coming after recovering from a surgery.

If that wasn't the case, surely he would've been the first choice since he is more experienced than me. When I'm playing, he keeps giving me feedback about my bowling if he feels I'm doing something wrong. We share a very good relationship."