Princely reward: Boy from Najafgarh rides into Indian team with yorkers

New Delhi: On Tuesday, the day Prince Yadav was to be picked for the India cricket team that will play three ODIs against Afghanistan this month, his coach Amit Vashisht reached Jaipur to be by his ward's side. They clicked a picture together -- which you can see here on the top -- and as news trickled in about his selection, their joy knew no bounds.

Vashisht, a Najafgarh-based coach who is hands-on with his trainees, may have been having mixed feelings in the crowd at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium as Yadav went for some runs, especially off short balls, and also bowled some searing yorkers that he is famous for. 

Delhi senior team coach Sarandeep Singh had, in fact, told this writer last season that Prince possesses the best yorker in all of India.

It was evident at last year's IPL and this year, with added pace, he has made life more difficult for batsmen.

Vashisht credits ability to bowl yorkers to his early grooming in tennis ball cricket. 

"I first saw him in 2018, he was playing with a tennis ball and bowling yorkers. He was playing with a trainee (Manish) from my academy in Najafgarh. He and Lalit Yadav, who had seen him play, advised him to reach out to me.

Prince hails from Daryapur village in Najafgarh.

"I told him that he has very little time, needs to work very hard. He was 18 then. But he was hard-working. You enjoy training kids who are receptive and hard-working. Prince was one such boy," said Vashisht.

The biggest challenge was to switch from tennis ball to cricket ball.

"To switch from tennis ball to leather ball is tough. Leather is heavy. A leather ball weighs 155-163 grammes. The tennis ball weighs 60-70 grammes."

If you have played tennis ball cricket in your compounds, societies or mohallas, you'd realise that the safest bet for a bowler is the yorker.  

"With tennis ball, bowlers try to bowl only yorkers. To bowl yorkers with the lighter tennis ball, you need quick arm rotation. That helps the bowler become quick and strong. He is benefitting from that." 

Vashisht had to just polish him. 

He made him bowl overs at single stump and made him work on fitness.  

"We had to change his length with the cricket ball. With tennis ball you bowl yorkers, hard length is tough. He had to learn to bowl that. We set a plan, giving him break. He kept improving. He had great idea how to bowl. He bowled cutters and slower ones. He didn't need to work on that. He learnt how to swing the ball from a distance of four metres. Kept improving fitness. He began generating power and building muscle.

"I then sent him to local tournaments. He returned with the award for the best bowler in Lala Raghubir Cricket and Goswami Ganesh Dutt Memorial Cricket. This was prior to Covid, in 2019. He was the best bowler in several tournaments. He also represented Air India."

Prince was soon picked for the Under-19 team, for Ranji Trophy, as an IPL net bowler and following good performances in DPL by the Lucknow Super Giants where he has shown great prowess earning accolades from the likes of Ian Bishop.

On May 7, Bishop tweeted on X, "However the rest of the season goes, I can see Prince Yadav in the next T20i squad. He can bowl across all phases. He has a great feel for when to bowl what at each stage of an over and the innings. He is a solid fielder and catcher."

Twelve days later, the Indian selectors concurred. 

Tags : Prince Yadav, Amit Vashisht, Cricket, IPL, Indian cricket team, Lucknow Super Giants