Yash Dayal, building pace on spark lit in an U-23 game

As a junior, Uttar Pradesh pacer Yash Dayal could not break into the state’s age-group teams. Later, he played for Allahabad University and Allahabad Agriculture Institute, but was nowhere in the reckoning.

His father Chandrapal Dayal then put him under coach Kaushik Pal at the Madan Mohan Malviya Stadium in Prayagraj and it led to his shining in an U-23 match for UP against Madhya Pradesh where he took eight wickets.

“You don’t know where your destiny takes you. In Yash’s case it is true. All of a sudden he came up to the ladder with a fine show against MP,” Kaushik said on Tuesday, a day after Dayal received his maiden India call-up for the three-match ODI series in Bangladesh next month.

“His father Chandrapal put in a lot of effort to shape the career of his son. A lot of credit goes to him also as he never lost faith in destiny and hard work,” said Kaushik, who is now the coach at the Green Park Cricket Hostel in Kanpur.

Dayal built on from his U-23 showing and his consistency for IPL champions Gujarat Titans and for Uttar Pradesh, India A, etc., has been rewarded.

A regular UP team member since 2018, Dayal, who has taken 58 first-class games, delivered with Gujrat Titans too in their first season by claiming 11 wickets in nine matches after he fetched ₹3.2 crore at the IPL 2022 mega auction. Dayal was in India squad as a backup player after a Covid outbreak during the ODI series against West Indies.

Cricket runs in the family. His father too was a pace bowler, who played in the Vizzy Trophy. “It’s a dream come true,” Chandrapal said. “I never asked him to bowl pace, it was his love for bowling. He always used to follow me. I had a special love for pace bowling and Yash always watched me play in Prayagraj.”

Yash, who turns 25 next month, can become the second left-arm pacer from UP to play for India. RP Singh went on to claim 214 wickets, including 69 in ODIs and 90 in IPL.

Before leaving for Bangladesh, Dayal is expected to play for UP in the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament starting in New Delhi on November 12. “Yash should use of the opportunity to prepare well for Bangladesh as most of the pitches there also behave like Indian pitches,” an Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association official said.

Eleven Uttar Pradesh cricketers have played for India so far. Maharajkumar of Vizianagram, RP Singh (Lucknow), Gopal Sharma, Gyanendra Pandey, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, RP Singh (Rae Bareli), Praveen Kumar, Sudeep Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav.