After catching the eye of one and all in the third season of the Indian Premier League, Delhi Daredevils pacer Umesh Yadav finds himself being touted as the future of Indian fast bowling.

The 24-year-old has had a mixed IPL season so far with wickets being hard to come by. However, barring individual success, Umesh has succeeded in cementing his place in a Daredevils side that is fast turning into an IPL powerhouse.

With an all-star batting line-up to bank on, the DD bowlers often fail to get their share of attention. But the budding pacer admits that the bowlers in the capital city’s franchise breathed a collective sigh of relief upon seeing their team’s talented batting line-up.

The strapping speedster was all too happy to chat exclusively with iplt20.com after DD’s eight-wicket win over PWI in Pune.

Last season was pretty disappointing for DD. How does it feel to be on the top this year?

Last year, our team wasn’t balanced and this year it’s a very good team. We got a good start and hope to carry this form in the remaining matches.

What’s brought about the change in fortunes?

Last year, it was a new team, so we couldn’t get a good combination. This year, we bought KP [Kevin Pietersen], Mahela [Jayawardene] and Ross [Taylor], and that strengthened our batting line-up. And now we have a good bowling line-up, which makes our team balanced.

Do you feel secure as a bowler, knowing that the team has an all-star batting line-up?

As a bowler, you would never want to go for runs. But there is a sense of security that we have depth in the batting to cover it up.

How easy is it to bowl with Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan?

Morne has played a lot of cricket and knows more about the game. So whatever I try and learn from him, he helps me out in that; and same goes with Irfan as well. I enjoy bowling with them.

What’s it like playing under Virender Sehwag?

He is a very open-minded captain. He tells us to bowl the way we want to and lets us set our own field. It’s really good to play under him.

Do you think Kevin Pietersen and Virender Sehwag are the most devastating batting duo this season?

Both KP and Viru are in good form, which is really good for our team. If they continue their form, it will help our team win more matches.

Did you expect such a good start before the season had started?

The team was very confident and all the youngsters were hungry to win after the first season debacle. We were all prepared to give our best to the team.