Umesh Yadav puts his hands up for Down Under

It was not easy for Umesh Yadav to shoulder the responsibility of Indian bowling in the just-concluded Test in Hyderabad, especially after the only other pacer in the team, debutant Shardul Thakur, broke down after sending down just 10 deliveries.

With India reduced to four frontline bowlers on a flat pitch that the West Indies lower order made better use of than their main batsmen, Yadav's tireless efforts over the three days were worth the weight in gold.

It brought back memories of Kapil Dev uncomplainingly picking up wickets after wickets on helpless Indian pitches in the 1970s and 1980s.

It took Yadav 40 Tests since his debut in 2011-12 to take a maiden 10-wicket haul. He may have been erratic in the past, not done justice to the raw pace that he possesses and for a combination of factors including the team composition, may not have been a first-choice in the playing 11.

However, the 30-year-old from Vidarbha has, at least for now, put laid to rest doubts about his abilities after coming up with match-winning, career-best figures of 6/88 in the first innings and eventually finish with 10/133 in the match.

Yadav may have begun waywardly in Hyderabad, straying down the leg side to concede four byes off the first ball before gradually settling into a rhythm.

But, this has been the story of Yadav for 40 Tests and the 73 ODIs that he has played for India.

The manner in which he got the ball to move in and beat a well-set centurion Roston Chase to uproot his middle stump spoke volumes of Yadav's ability, especially coming at the fag end of the innings and having bowled down more than 26 overs.

Yadav has partly to blame himself for not taking it upon himself and being a strike bowler, as he is the senior most bowler among Indian pacers after Ishant Sharma. He has let the likes of Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to upstage him in the team and get a chance to play only when the others are unavailable, like it happened in the West Indies series.

After a disappointing show in the first Test at Birmingham in England, Yadav was kept out of the 11 for the next four Tests. Before England, he was not given a game on the tour of South Africa earlier this year.

But unlike in India's previous two tours, the right-armer will be a sure shot for the tour of Australia, where he has a better record with 25 wickets in seven Tests including his first five-wicket haul of 5/93 on his first trip in 2011-12.

His style of bowling suits the Australian conditions, which particularly help reverse swing, an art that Yadav has mastered over the years.

Whether he figures in the playing 11 when India take on Australia in the first of four Tests in Adelaide on December 6 remains to be seen as the first choice bowlers Bumrah, Kumar and the veteran Sharma will be back rejuvenated after being rested following the long England tour.

That said, Yadav's latest efforts have got everybody praising him, right from the captain Virat Kohli to coach Ravi Shastri.

"It can be a frustrating profession when you sit on the bench like Umesh for four Tests (in England)," head coach Shastri said after the Hyderabad Test.

"Only 11 can play. He got his opportunity here (against the West Indies) and I'm very happy for him. It's been done only four times (ten-for for a pacer in India). What this will do is make him believe that he belongs. He can say now that he wants his place. That's given us a headache. He was on target."

For Kohli, it is a pleasant headache to have – whom to drop when it comes to picking the final 11 for Australia Tests.

"Four Tests in Australia can be brutal because the (Kookaburra) ball does not do much like in England. So you have to come in and run in all day and hit the right area with pace. But I think from that point of view, Umesh is right up there to be featuring in Australia," said Kohli post the 2-0 series win against the Windies.

"Because he (Umesh) has got the pace, he has got the fitness levels to run in all day, picks up wickets at crucial times and he gets good bounce as well, so it's a great headache to have. Obviously, all four guys, when they are touching 140 and when they are taking wickets for you, it is obviously something that any captain would like to have."

For now, Yadav has put his hands up and be counted.