Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav is an Indian cricketer who plays as a right-handed batter for the Indian national team and the Mumbai cricket team in domestic competitions. Suryakumar also plays for Mumbai Indians in the IPL and his stint with the franchise can be credited for rising to fame at the global level.

Since his childhood days, Suryakumar developed an interest in cricket and badminton. His father Ashok Kumar Yadav wanted his son to focus on one sport only and pursue his career in the same. He was 10 years old when his family shifted from Varanasi to Mumbai.

After understanding that Suryakumar had the skills and talent for the game, Ashok enrolled him in a cricket camp in BARC colony in Chembur. At the age of 12 he went to Elf Vengsarkar academy where he received guidance from former Indian great Dilip Vengsarkar.

Suryakumar studied at Pillai College of Arts, Commerce and Science. He won the MA Chidambaram Trophy for the best Under-22 cricketer of the year in 2011. His impressive run of scoring 721 runs at an average of 80.11 in seven matches, including four fifties and a couple of centuries.

The cricketer is very fond of tattoos and has inked several designs and characters on different parts of body, including a picture of his parents on right shoulder.

Suryakumar Yadav Career

Suryakumar Yadav Domestic Career

Suryakumar played his first List-A match on 11 Feb 2010 in Vijay Hazare Trophy for his home state Mumbai against Gujarat. He made quick 41 off 37 balls and was the second highest scorer of the match.

Few months later he made his debut in T20s playing for Mumbai against Hyderabad in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He was dismissed at a score of 5 and the team faced a huge 7 wicket defeat.

The end of 2010 came with another opportunity for this young lad and he made his debut in First class cricket against Delhi. This time Surya was probably not in a mood to share his limelight with anyone as he scored a thumping 73 - highest of the match.

After a scintillating debut, Surya took 2011-12 Ranji season by storm as he topped Mumbai's run charts by amassing 754 runs in 9 matches at an average of 68.54. He hit a double-century against Orissa in only his third match of the season and followed it up with another century in the next match. He also scored massive 1000+ runs at the U23 level in 2011-12 season and won the MA Chidambaram Trophy.

Ahead of the 2014-15 Ranji season, Mumbai named Suryakumar as captain of the team. In spite of scoring 487 runs at an average of 53.88, Suryakumar quit captaincy following Mumbai's loss to Tamil Nadu by an innings and 44 runs. The Mumbai batter cited he wished to focus on his batting as the reason behind quitting captaincy.

The Mumbai star batter was reinstated as team captain a week before the team would kick off their 2019-20 season. The decision was surprising after the flamboyant batter was dropped from the squad in the previous season.

He scored a blistering 94 in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Group B Super League match against Karnataka as Mumbai won by seven wickets.

Suryakumar was appointed captain of Mumbai for the 2020-21 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Suryakumar Yadav IPL Career

Impressed by his talent, Yadav received an IPL contract from Mumbai Indians in the 2012 season. Though he was ignored throughout the season due to the presence of veteran players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard.

In the 2014 IPL auction, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) purchased the Mumbai player for INR 70 lakhs. He was part of the franchise's title-winning team, scoring 164 runs in his maiden season.

He broke the headlines in IPL 2015 when he hit a match-winning 20-ball 46 against Mumbai Indians that overshadowed Rohit Sharma's classy 98.

He returned back to Mumbai Indians in the 2018 IPL mega auction. As an uncapped player, he earned the fattest pay cheques of the auction - 3.2 crores. In the 2019 season, he played 16 matches and scored 424 runs at an average of 32.61 with the highest score of 71.

Suryakumar was outstanding in IPL 2020 with 480 runs at 40 and a strike rate of 145.01. He was the second most run-getter for MI after Quinton de Kock as they won back-to-back IPL titles.

Ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction, Suryakumar was retained by Mumbai Indians as their fourth-choice player of the franchise. He made 303 runs in eight matches at a strike rate of 145.67 before sustaining an injury and was subsequently ruled out of the remaining season.

Suryakumar Yadav International Career

After almost toiling hard in domestic cricket and IPL for nearly a decade, Suryakumar got his due recognition and opportunity to play for the senior Indian men’s team. The Mumbai-born batter made his international debut on March 14, 2021 in Ahmedabad against England in a T20I match. However, Suryakumar didn’t get the opportunity to bat on his debut but made 57 in his first T20I innings in the fourth T20I match.

Since then Suryakumar hasn’t looked back and by leaps and bounds he marched ahead. He was part of India’s squad in the 2021 T20 World where he played four games and scored 42 runs in three innings.

During the final T20I match in Nottingham, India were set with a mammoth score of 216 to chase in order to whitewash England 3-0. While India’s top batting order fell early in the chase, Suryakumar lifted the hopes with his pyrotechnics.

He took the attack to the England bowlers and played his shots with sheer elegance to make batting look simpler than anything. Suryakumar smashed 14 boundaries and six sixes during his 55-ball 117 that kept England away from the game until the penultimate over where Moeen Ali dismissed the fiery Indian batter.

Suryakumar retained his position in India’s T20 World Cup squad by the dint of outstanding knocks in bilateral series in the build up to World T20 2022.

Suryakumar Yadav ODI

Four months after making T20I debut, Suryakumar was named in India’s second-string limited overs squad for the Sri Lanka tour in July 2021. Surykaumar made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka on July 18 during the first ODI and remained unbeaten on 31.

As of October 2022, Suryakumar has played 13 One-Day Internationals and scored 340 runs at 34 and a couple of fifties, including his best score of 64 against West Indies in February 2022. Suryakumar became the first batter to score 30-plus scores in his first six ODI innings.

Impressed by his talent, Yadav received an IPL contract from Mumbai Indians in the 2012 season. Though he was ignored throughout the season due to the presence of veteran players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard.

In the 2014 IPL auction, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) purchased the Mumbai player for INR 70 lakhs. He was part of the franchise's title-winning team, scoring 164 runs in his maiden season.

He broke the headlines in IPL 2015 when he hit a match-winning 20-ball 46 against Mumbai Indians that overshadowed Rohit Sharma's classy 98.

He returned back to Mumbai Indians in the 2018 IPL mega auction. As an uncapped player, he earned the fattest pay cheques of the auction - 3.2 crores. In the 2019 season, he played 16 matches and scored 424 runs at an average of 32.61 with the highest score of 71.

Suryakumar was outstanding in IPL 2020 with 480 runs at 40 and a strike rate of 145.01. He was the second most run-getter for MI after Quinton de Kock as they won back-to-back IPL titles.

Ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction, Suryakumar was retained by Mumbai Indians as their fourth-choice player of the franchise. He made 303 runs in eight matches at a strike rate of 145.67 before sustaining an injury and was subsequently ruled out of the remaining season.

Suryakumar Yadav Family Background

Since his early childhood, Yadav developed an interest in cricket and badminton. His father Ashok Kumar Yadav made sure that Suryakumar focused on one sport only and make his career in it. He was 10 years old when his family shifted to Mumbai from Varanasi.

The same year, he started playing cricket for his school team. Suryakumar met his wife Devisha for the first time in 2012 at the R.A. Podar College Of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai. While Devisha got impressed by Suryakumar’s batting, the Mumbai dasher got flattered by Devisha’s dance.

Suryakumar stays in Mumbai’s Chembur area along with his wife Devisha Shetty, parents - Ashok Kumar Yadav and Swapna Yadav - sister Dinal Yadav and two dogs named Oreo and Pablo.