It is 5:30pm on the clock on a Saturday evening and the Haryana team is set to board a flight for their next Ranji Trophy fixture in an hour’s time. Amidst all the hustle and bustle at the airport, the side’s leading wicket-taker; 25-year old off-spinner Jayant Yadav is more than willing to spare sometime over the phone to talk about his brilliant run this Ranji Trophy season. 28 wickets in six games; he is reminded of his statistics and you sense a feeling of delight as he replies, “It feels great.” So what has worked for him this season that has got him in the list of top three highest wicket-taker’s chart? “We played our first match against Punjab and the wicket was a bit spinner friendly,” Yadav starts off. “When you start the season well and pick wickets at the beginning of the season, it keeps you in good stead for the rest of the season. I picked up 8 wickets in that match and took that confidence in the following games. When you start well and you are confident about your preparations, everything falls into place.” Haryana play most of their home games in Lahli - a track that is more seamer friendly and the role of a spinner becomes minimal. Yadav though has taken that as a challenge and opportunity to pick wickets. The offie seems to have done his homework before the start of the season. “If you see on seamer friendly tracks, the mindset of most batsmen is to attack the spinners. According to me, that’s a chance to take wickets. In the off season I worked on certain things like containing the batsmen and developing a mindset wherein you have to be mentally strong when the batsman is attacking you. You need to adjust your bowling to suit those kinds of wickets. You have to bowl the straighter ball, bowl from round the wicket and realise that you won’t get a typical off-spinner’s dismissal like a caught and bowled or getting the batsman bowled through the gate. Conventional off-spinner’s dismissals won’t happen and you have to bowl according to the conditions on offer. You have to be aware of the batsman’s mindset as well, if the batsman is attacking you have to make sure that you work a way to get him out. It was a thorough preparation in the off-season regarding this and it is paying off.” Yadav’s skills as an all-rounder grew in prominence after his all-round show against Saurashtra at Rajkot. He picked thirteen wickets in the match and had a 97 against his name to follow with the bat. Yadav had fresh memories from that game. “Rajkot was a great wicket to bowl for spinners which is normally considered a batting paradise. It was a result oriented wicket and I took advantage of it. At times when conditions are tailor-made for you, you take the pressure of wanting to perform in it. I just went in with a clear mind and bowled according to my strengths and plans. I trusted my preparations and put the ball in the right areas, allowing the wicket to do the rest.” Almost immediately, Yadav the bowler jumps to Yadav the batsman. “On spinning tracks, you are well aware what you can do as a batsman to upset the bowler and how you can counter what the bowler is trying to do. That mindset really helped. Being a spinner I could gauge what to expect as a batsman and went ahead and scored 97 runs on the same wicket where I took wickets. It was quite an uphill task to bat on that track, because run-scoring was difficult. On turning tracks you have to apply yourself and wait for bad balls which at times are a rarity. It was more of a grind. I had to put a lot of mind in my batting; play aggressive when required and chip those singles at intervals. It was a challenging knock. “I want to be a good bowling all-rounder,” Yadav continues. “We play our home games at Lahli and the role of spinners in Lahli is limited most times. That is when my utility as a batsman comes into the picture where I can contribute to the team with the bat apart from being a handy bowler on those conditions. I have been working on my batting in the off-season and it is paying dividends. I hope it pays off in the coming games as well.” Talking about bowling all-rounders Yadav speaks about his admiration for India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. “As a bowler I look up to Ashwin. I admire the way he is constantly trying to bring about variety in his bowling. He wants to be new every time he bowls. He experiments a lot with his bowling and is wise enough to know when to stop. He is well aware of his game, a confident bowler and adapts to the conditions.” Yadav recalls an interaction with Ashwin he had a few months back. “I got a chance to catch up with him during a few net sessions in Chennai before he left for the England tour. He is a very nice guy. We didn’t speak anything technical; we had conversations about the mental aspect of the game which I try to imbibe. He is a very positive cricketer and always believes in doing whatever he does to the best of his ability without worrying about the result. It is easy to say that you try different things, but to get that in your routine is difficult. I am in touch with him on and off. There are times when he texts me and applauds me for my performance in a particular game. After the Punjab match he congratulated me on my performance. Such things really pump you up and makes you happy that someone like Ashwin is keeping a tab of your performance.” Though Yadav admires Ashwin, the Haryana bowler wants to have his own identity. “I just want to have my own identity as a bowler instead of trying to copy someone. I am not trying to say that I want to bowl the carrom ball, or have an action like Ashwin, but I definitely want to pick a few tricks of the trade and about preparations for matches and wickets from him. I am still discovering myself as a bowler and I want to do my process correctly. I just want to keep playing cricket, that’s all that I want to do right now.” It’s just about time for Yadav’s flight to take off as he talks about his dream of representing the country one day. But for now, it is about being true to his skills against Rajasthan next in the Ranji Trophy. “One step at a time”, he says and signs off.