Mayank Yadav bowled the first ball of his international comeback at 149 kph and knocked over Zimbabwe's Brian Bennett. The 24-year-old pacer, playing his first match in two years after a string of injuries, finished with figures of 2 for 18 in the first T20I in Harare on Thursday. At almost the same time, 7,000 kilometres away in Mathura, his father Prabhu Yadav was seven hours into a 21-km walk around Govardhan Hill and had no idea any of it was happening.
That mismatch, a son breaking speed guns in Zimbabwe while his father walked a pilgrimage route with no phone signal to speak of, sums up the last two years of Mayank Yadav's career. He has spent them mostly out of sight: in rehab rooms, on treatment tables, and finally, on Thursday, back on a cricket field, making batters hop.
