ICC Under-19 World Cup: Captain Yash Dhull learned to grab opportunities and embrace challenges at an early age

Yash Dhull opted to bat first against Australia at Coolidge in the U-19 World Cup semifinal on Wednesday. The surface at the venue had earned a reputation of being capricious in the two preceding matches. The bigger challenge, though, awaited Dhull when he strode out to the pitch with the scoreboard reading 37/2 in the 13th over. What followed was 33 overs of a precisely-paced ODI innings which yielded a run-a-ball 110 for Dhull. The knock set the foundation for a mam-moth victory and a place in Saturday’s final against England. Dhull’s cricket journey started with a curve ball thrown at him at the age of 11. He went to Bal Bhawan school, where he has been honed for the last eight years, for admission since the academy there could give him enough opportunities. He was turned away by the principal. “Yash pleaded for an opportunity to prove his potential. Then we decided to give him one match and told him that was his only opportunity. He was playing against 14-year-old boys and scored an unbeaten 125,” his childhood coach Rajesh Nagar fondly remembers. According to Nagar, his most endearing quality came through after that innings. “The principal gave him Rs 500 as a reward and asked him what he wanted to do with that money. Yash said he will give his teammates a treat since success in cricket depends on the teammates,” Nagar told TOI.

Dhull’s family was completely in-vested in his cricket career. Yet they never interfered in the way he was coached. “His grandfather is an ex-Army man and that discipline is in him. He speaks less and knows what needs to be done,” the coach claims. As he cruised through the U-16 level, the next challenge came when the first Covid lockdown happened in 2020. Gyanendra Pandey, the junior