Ever since he burst onto the scene for Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League, Mayank Yadav has terrorised batters with his searing pace, but the youngster’s career has been a stop-gap affair due to multiple injuries.

India desperately missed his express pace during the Border-Gavaskar series in Australia after Jasprit Bumrah was done with his spells. After the IPL, Yadav was earmarked by cricket experts as one of the pacers India needed in Australia, but the lanky quick missed the tour after suffering a back injury during the T20I series against Bangladesh at home in October, last year. He is also set to miss the upcoming white-ball series against England as he is yet to recover from the injury.

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Mayank stormed onto the international scene against Bangladesh and picked up four wickets in his three games. However, after the T20I series, he once again found discomfort in his back and missed the South Africa tour due to the injury. The young paceman has already missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy, which has put him in the unwanted category of injury-prone players.

Former Australia left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg, however, was blunt in questioning his prolonged absence from the scene, and raised doubts over the youngster’s desire to play the longest version of the sport.

“He’s [Mayank Yadav] is injury-prone because he’s young. I’m looking at his first-class stat, he’s only played one FC game. So, he hasn’t played too much of the longer format as well. I think it’s just sheer pace with Mayank Yadav. There are a couple of other bowlers that are very similar to him that bowl 145-150-plus but I think with young Indian bowlers coming through they bowl at that pace. Sometimes, they are thinking right, just bowl sheer pace, if I can get an IPL contract, I’m happy. The end,” Hogg said on his YouTube channel.

“Once they get that IPL contract, everything falls out of the window. They don’t learn how to play the longer form of the game. They don’t know how to bowl within themselves, they don’t have that endurance factor. They haven’t been trained for that endurance factor,” he added.

Hogg branded Mayank as more of a T20 bowler. He does not feel that the young Delhi pacer, who was retained for Rs 11 crore by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) has plans to plot against batters in other formats of the game.

Hogg rated Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna as better options than Mayank in Test cricket.

“They are not trying for skills to be able to bowl within themselves like I was saying about Harshit Rana, the other moves the bowl both ways to keep that body to not wear that body out quickly. So, bowl within yourself, and then when you’ve got sheer pace and the game needs you to go up an extra gear, You can really take that game on. So, I think Mayank Yadav is more of a 20-20 bowler, I don’t think he’s got the game plan to work batsman out in the longer format of the game,” the 53-year-old said.

“So, I think they have to look at Harshit Rana and Krishna as your options moving forward. I don’t think Mayank Yadav you have seen playing too much Test cricket,” he added.