Yadav started playing club cricket in Mumbai before he was selected for the Mumbai cricket team. He made his List A debut for Mumbai in February 2010 before making his first class and T20 debut in the same year. In March 2021, he made his T20I debut and later made his ODI debut in July of the same year. He has mainly played limited-overs cricket for India, having played his only Test match in February 2023. He was named as the captain of the Indian team for first time in November 2023 and was re-appointed as the captain of the Indian T20I team in July 2024 after the previous captain Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from T20Is.
As of August 2024, Yadav has scored more than 3,000 runs in international cricket with four centuries. More than 75% of his career runs and all of his centuries have come from T20I matches. His four T20I centuries are the second most by any male batter. He held the top ranking in the ICC men's player rankings for T20Is from October 2022 to June 2024. He won the ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year award in 2022 and was also named in the ICC Men's T20I Team of the Year in 2022 and 2023. He is regarded as one of the greatest T20 batters of all time, consistently being ranked as the top T20I batsman as per ICC rankings.
Yadav plays for Mumbai in the Indian domestic cricket, which he has captained in the past. He has played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL), winning one title with Kolkata in 2014 and two with Mumbai, in 2019 and 2020.
Early and personal life
Yadav was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) on 14 September 1990.[1] His parents were from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh.[2] He did his schooling at Atomic Energy Central School in Mumbai and graduated with a B.Com from Pillai College in Mumbai.[3][4] He started playing cricket under the guidance of his paternal uncle Vinod Kumar Yadav in Varanasi. At the age of 10, he was enrolled in a cricket camp at BARC colony in Mumbai, coached by Ashok Kamat.[5] He then went to Elf Vengsarkar Academy, run by former international cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar and played age-group cricket in Mumbai.[6]
On 7 July 2016, Yadav married Devisha Shetty, whom he first met in 2010 at a college program. Shetty is a trained dancer and a dance coach.[7]
Early and domestic career
Yadav played club cricket in Mumbai, mostly for Parsi Gymkhana Cricket Club, along with teams including Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited team, Shivaji Park Gymkhana Club and Dadar Union Club.[8][9] He made his debut for Mumbai against Gujarat in a List A match February 2010. He made his T20 debut against Hyderabad next month and first class debut later against Delhi in December 2010.[1][5] In the 2011–12 Ranji Trophy season, he scored the most runs for Mumbai with 754 runs from nine games at an average of over 68.[10] He was also part of the Indian under-22 team and scored 721 runs at an average of more than 80 with two centuries. He was awarded the MA Chidambaram Trophy for the Best Under-22 cricketer by the Board of Control for Cricket in India at a ceremony held in Chennai on 10 December 2011.[11]
Yadav captained the Mumbai team for a brief period during the 2014–15 Ranji Trophy season, before he was replaced midway into the tournament.[12] He scored 690 runs across ten matches in the tournament.[13] He was part of the Mumbai squad that won the 2015–16 Ranji Trophy.[14] He was amongst the top five run getters in the season with 788 runs and scored three centuries including a score of 115 in the second innings of the semifinal match against Madhya Pradesh.[15][16] The Mumbai team consisting of Yadav reached the second consecutive Ranji final in 2016-17, but lost to Gujarat.[17] He scored more than 600 runs for the third consecutive season with a highest score of 110 runs.[18]
Yadav scored 241 runs with an average of over 40 in the 2018–19 Vijay Hazare Trophy ODI tournament, which was won by Mumbai.[19][20] In October 2019, he was named in the India C squad for the 2019–20 Deodhar Trophy.[21] He was again appointed as captain of the Mumbai team for the 2019-20 season, but Mumbai failed to make it out of the group stage in the tournament.[22][23] He also captained the team in the 2020–21 Syed Mushtaq Ali TrophyT20 tournament.[24][25] His team fared poorly finishing bottom of the Group E with just one win in five matches.[26] Along with his commitments with the Mumbai team, he continued to play club cricket for Parsi Gymkhana club. He scored 249 runs in final against Payyade Sports Club in the Police Shield tournament in 2021, winning the "Best Batsman of the Final" award and helped the club to win the tournament for the first time since 1956.[9][27]
International career
Debut and early career
In February 2021, Yadav was named in the IndianTwenty20 International (T20I) squad for the home series against England.[28] He made his T20I debut on 14 March 2021 in the second match of the series at Ahmedabad but did not get a chance to bat.[29] In the fourth game of the series held on 18 March, he played his first innings as a batter and hit the first ball he faced in international cricket for a six, becoming the first Indian to do so in T20Is.[30] He went on to score a half-century in the match and his performance in the game was praised by then Indian captain Virat Kohli.[31][32] He was named in Indian ODI squad for the subsequent series against England, but did not play any matches.[33] In June 2021, he was part of the Indian limited overs squads for the away series against Sri Lanka.[34] He made his ODI debut on 18 July 2021 in the first match of the series at Colombo.[35] On 20 July 2021, he scored his maiden ODI half-century against Sri Lanka.[36]
In July 2021, Yadav was called up as a replacement player to the Indian test squad for the away series against England, but did not play a match.[37] In September 2021, he was selected in the Indian squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.[38] He scored just 31 runs across three matches in the World Cup in which India was eliminated from the group stage.[39][40] In November 2021, he was named in the Indian test squad for their home series against New Zealand, but was not selected in the playing XI for any of the games.[41] He played three T20Is against New Zealand, scoring 63 runs across three innings including a half-century and a duck.[39] He was part of both the limited overs squads for the home series against West Indies in February 2022 and made a come-back to the ODI team in the series.[42]
Top ranked T20I batter
In June 2022, Yadav part of the Indian squad for the T20I series against Ireland and the subsequent tour of England.[43] In July 2022, he scored his first T20I century against England at Trent Bridge, scoring 117 off 55 balls.[44] He became only the fifth Indian player to score a century in T20Is and only the second to reach the mark batting fourth or lower.[45] In August 2022, he played in the 2022 Asia Cup T20I competition and scored 139 runs across five innings.[46] Later, he was part of the T20I home series against Australia and South Africa.[39] In October 2022, he became the fastest to score 1000 runs in T20Is in terms of balls faced, reaching the mark in 573 balls in the series against South Africa.[47][48] On 30 October 2022, he achieved the top rank in the ICC men's player rankings for T20I batsmen for the first time in his career.[49][50]
In January 2023, he scored the second fastest century by an Indian batter in T20Is and the third of his career, reaching the mark in 45 balls against Sri Lanka at Rajkot.[59][60] He played in both the ODI and T20I series against the touring New Zealand side in January–February 2023 and scored 142 runs across five innings.[39][42] In January 2023, he achieved 910 rating points, the second best ever in the history of men's T20I rankings and was named as the captain of the ICC Men's T20I Team of the Year for 2022.[61][62]
Test debut and World Cups
On 9 February 2023, Yadav made his test debut against Australia at Nagpur, which has been his only test appearance as of August 2024.[63] In the subsequent ODI series, he registered his third consecutive golden duck in the third match of the series at Chennai, becoming the first Indian batter to do so.[64] In August 2023, he was appointed as the vice-captain of the Indian team for the T20I series against West Indies.[65] He scored 166 runs across four innings including 83 runs off 44 balls in the third match of the series.[39][66] He was part the Indian squad that won the 2023 Asia Cup but played only one game in the series in the loss to Bangladesh.[67][68][69] Later, he was named in the Indian squad for the 2023 Cricket World Cup held in India.[70] He scored just 106 runs across seven innings in the world cup, in which India finished as the runners-up.[71][72] After the World Cup, he was named as the captain of the Indian team for the home T20I series against Australia.[73][74] He scored 144 runs in five innings and led the team to a 4–1 series victory.[39][75] He was also named as captain for the subsequent Indian tour of South Africa.[76] In the series, he scored the fourth T20I century of his career, equaling Rohit Sharma and Glenn Maxwell for the record of most centuries in T20Is (which has since been surpassed by both Sharma and Maxwell).[77][78]
In May 2024, Yadav was named in the Indian squad for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament.[79] In the Super 8 match against Afghanistan, he was named Player of the Match in the tournament for his score of 53 runs from 28 balls.[80] In the final against South Africa, he took a catch close to the boundary line in the final over of the South African innings to dismissDavid Miller.[81] India went on to win the match by seven runs to lift their second T20 World Cup; they had last won the inaugural edition in 2007.[82] Cricket commentator Ian Smith referred to the catch as being "one of the greatest" in the history of the game.[83][84] In June 2024, he dropped to second in the ICC T20I player rankings, after being overtaken by Australian Travis Head.[85] He captained the Indian team that toured Sri Lanka for a three-match T20 series played at Pallekele in late July, which India won 3–0.[86][87]
In 2018 IPL auction, he was bought back by the Mumbai Indians for a price of ₹32 million (US$380,000).[93] He was a prolific run score for Mumbai, scoring more than 1400 runs across three seasons and won the title with the team in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.[89][92] He was retained by the franchise ahead of the 2022 auction for ₹80 million (US$960,000).[94] However, he was ruled out of the initial part of 2022 season due to injury and scored 303 runs in eight matches at an average of more than 43 on his return.[89][95]
Yadav was appointed as the vice-captain of the side for the 2023 season and captained the side in a match against his old side KKR after Rohit missed it due to injury.[96] In the 2023 season, he had his best ever IPL season with the bat, scoring 605 runs in 16 matches including his maiden IPL century against Gujarat Titans on 12 May 2023.[89][97] He missed the first few matches of the 2024 IPL season as he was recovering from injury.[98][99] He played 11 games in the season and scored 345 runs including his second IPL century against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.[100]
Playing style
Yadav is a hard hitting middle-order batter. He has a tendency to go all-out from the first ball, rather than take time to settle at the crease. He plays a wide range of shots and all around the ground on both off and leg sides. He is often called Mr. 360 for his range of shots including scoops over fine leg.[8][101]
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