A ten-year-old Prince Yadav had just returned from a tennis-ball game to his home in Dariyapur Khurd Village in Delhi’s Najafgarh, when he stood before a mirror and told himself: ‘I want to play for India’. Not long after, coach Amit Vashistha spotted him while passing a local ground on his scooter — a chance moment that would change everything.
Cut to fifteen years later. Prince, now finding his feet as a rising IPL star, was asleep in the plush sheets of a five-star hotel in Jaipur earlier this week when his phone rang. On the other end were words he had been itching to hear all his life — you have been selected to play for India in the upcoming ODI series against Afghanistan.
The dream now has a date, an opponent, and finally, the blue jersey. “I woke up to my phone buzzing. I picked up one call and it was Sanjeev Goenka (Owner of his IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants) sir breaking the news to me that I was in the Indian team. It took me 30 seconds to register. I got goosebumps and suddenly saw myself standing in front of that same mirror again. Uske baad khushi ke aansu girne lage,” he says. “I called maa and she was sobbing. Then papa asked, ‘Are you sure yeh news sach hai?’” he recalls, before laughing at his father’s immediate follow-up: “Bahut badhiya, lekin abhi next IPL match pe focus karo.”
A few weeks ago, Prince steamed in at 150 km/h and sent Virat Kohli’s stumps cartwheeling within two balls. “Virat bhaiya’s wicket will always be special because of everything I’ve learnt from him,” he says. “One thing he told me was: Teri achi ball sabke liye achi hai aur buri ball sabke liye buri.. come what may, never focus too much on the result. I’m very excited to now share a dressing room with him and Rohit bhaiya.”
The road, however, was far from easy. A two-year suspension for age-fudging in 2019 left him isolated and emotionally shattered. “Woh do saal bahut mushkil the. Kaafi logon ne saath chhod diya. But Amit sir stood by me like a rock. He never let my dream fade,” he says.
Soon after the news of his call up broke, the lanke fast-bowler was greeted with congratulatory words from his counterparts on the ground, “Arshdeep and Yuzi Chahal bhaiya met me at the training and patted my back.” Now, less than a month away from his India debut, Prince is hungrier than ever: “Meri bhook bahut zyaada badh gayi hai. I don’t want to be known as that player jiske baare mein log bolein, ‘haan, isne ek series kheli thi’. Mujhe har ek stage par apne aapko prove karna hai India ke liye.”
