Mayank Yadav's Historic Comeback: Leading India to Victory Against Zimbabwe

Mayank Yadav's Remarkable Return

Mayank Yadav made a stunning return to international cricket after a two-year absence due to injury, playing a pivotal role in India's 3-0 series triumph over Zimbabwe. The fast bowler participated in all three matches, claiming five wickets and finishing as the series' leading wicket-taker. In the first match, he recorded impressive figures of 2/18 in four overs, earning the Player of the Match accolade. Although he did not take any wickets in the second match, conceding 25 runs in three overs, he bounced back in the final game, taking three wickets for just 29 runs on July 27.

Historic Achievements by Mayank Yadav

Notably, Mayank achieved a unique milestone by dismissing Brian Benett for a golden duck on the very first ball of Zimbabwe's innings in both the first and third matches. This makes him the first player ever to take the same batter's wicket on the first ball of a T20I innings twice. Remarkably, in just six T20I matches, he has claimed a wicket on the first delivery of the opposition's innings three times. In addition to the two dismissals of Bennett, he also took the wicket of Bangladesh's Parvez Hossain Emon with the opening ball during a T20I in 2024 at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. No bowler has achieved this feat more than three times since the inception of T20Is in 2005. Mayank now shares the world record with seven other bowlers, with only Bhuvneshwar Kumar among Indian bowlers achieving this milestone as frequently.

India stands out as the only nation with two players who have taken a wicket on the first ball of an innings three times. In this series, Mayank also became the third Indian bowler to achieve a wicket on the first ball of a match, following in the footsteps of Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya. Notably, all of Bhuvneshwar's instances occurred in the second innings. Among batters, Phil Salt and William Porterfield have been dismissed four times on the first ball of an innings, while Bennett now shares the second spot on the list with Jason Roy and Syed Aziz, having faced three such dismissals.