Surya Kumar Ashok Yadav, a story of talent, hard work, consistency, forbearance and preservation. Some of the attributes to understand Suryakumar Yadav best would be through the lens of flawless adjectives. An inspirational and motivational story of a cricketer who didn’t give up hope and believed in himself even when the time was racing against him and his dream started to become as distant as it could be. Here we look into the life of the star cricketer who arrived late but on the back of years of cricketing credentials had led to a meteoric rise to popularity.
Suryakumar Yadav was born in a middle class family. His father Ashok Kumar Yadav is an electrical engineer from Uttar Pradesh, who later moved to Mumbai to work at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Surya’s father noticed his son’s interest in sports at an early age and when Surya was 12, Ashok was informed that his son had enough capability and this made him enroll Surya in the Dilip Vengsarkar Academy. Suryakumar was raised there under the expertise of Dilip Balwani Vengsarkar. Surya, having played both badminton and cricket, was advised by his father to choose one sport of interest before admitting him to a cricket academy.
Yadav had been knocking the doors of the national team for quite sometime before he got his big year in 2022. The 32 year old had a fantastic and dynamic year in T20I cricket as he ended up being the highest run scorer in this format in 2022 and also got the well deserved No.1 spot in the ICC rankings for T20I batters. He was also awarded a spot in the ICC T20I team of the year 2022 alongside Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya. With becoming the third highest run scoring player in the T20 World Cup 2022 on Australian soil, Suryakumar Yadav’s journey to where he is today is a fascinating story in itself. His hard work and dedication towards his passion shows that it is never too late to get into your dream destination.
Nothing has been truer in Surya’s case, with the batsman doing everything just to prove his potential and don the Indian blue uniform. When Surya made his debut for Mumbai through his Ranji Trophy team, little did he know he’ll have to wait a long of 11 years to be a part of the Indian cricket team. The journey was studded with some allegations of indiscipline, strife and more, but the Mumbai guy believed in learning, unlearning, moving on and giving his best in his passion. Yadav’s fitness issues caused his coaches headaches, and there were also complaints about his attitude and later Yadav was stripped of Mumbai’s captaincy across all formats and there were reports of his brawls and indiscipline. Before his takeoff, the potential star appeared to be fading but later his eating habits shifted, he bulked up to improve his power-hitting abilities, and he spent countless hours amongst the nets which made the star rise again.
