Who is Siddharth Yadav, the member of India U-19 World Cup 2022 squad?
Top-order player Siddharth Yadav is one of the members of the India U-19 squad picked for the Asia Cup in UAE as well as U-19 World Cup in the Caribbean.
Siddharth has earned his chance on the back of solid domestic performances in Uttar Pradesh. The 18-year-old, born in August 2003 in Ghaziabad, is a left-hand batter andwas picked for the U-19 Challengers Trophy by the junior selection committee.
In the tournament, Siddharth Yadav made 361 runs in his four innings, including a hundred and three fifties. From there, his Asia Cup and World Cup selection was a straightforward case for the selectors, who initially tested him in a youth tri-series, featuring visitors Bangladesh and two selected Indian teams.
Having also impressed the coaches and the selectors there, Siddarth boarded the flight to UAE for the Asia Cup enroute to the much-anticipated World Cup in the Caribbean, starting January 14.
Siddharth Yadav’s competitive cricketing journey, however, began when he entered the U-16 set-up under BCCI’s wings and proved to be the highest run-scorer for the state of UP that season in his age bracket. A double hundred and five half-centuries pushed the youngster’s case for selection in the Zonal Cricket Academy (ZCA) and he was later sent to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore.
Siddharth Yadav has had an amazing rise.
Siddharth Yadav: journey from a shopkeeper’s son to U-19 World Cup star for India
Siddharth Yadav comes from a very humbling background, with his father being a shopkeeper in Kotgaon, Ghaziabad. Protagonist of another inspirational small-town tale in Indian cricket, Siddharth has a lot to thank his father for. It was Yadav senior, Shravan, who identified Siddharth’s potential early and pushed him towards cricket.
In an interview with the Indian Express, Shravan confirmed that he could only go as far as bowling to Manoj Prabhakar once in the nets in Ghaziabad with his own cricketing aspirations, but that never dimmed his love and passion for the sport. That innate love for the game has been inherited by Siddharth.
“When he (Siddharth) was young, it was my dream to see him playing cricket one day. When he held the bat for the first time, he stood left-handed. My mother said, ‘yeh kaisa ulta khada ho gaya hai (why is he standing the wrong way?)’. I said this is what his stance will be, and he has been a left-handed batsman ever since,” Shravan told Indian Express.
Siddharth started taking steps towards cricket when he was only eight years old, with Yadav senior making him train under his supervision. And the training wasn’t just for the joy of his son, it was serious business as the father mandated his son to play those throwdowns absolutely straight.
“I made sure he did that for about three hours. I closed my shop at 2 pm, and we would be at the ground until 6. Then I would go back to the shop. I would have dinner by 10.30 pm and then, when I hit the bed, mujhe hosh hi nahi rehta tha (I would pass out with exhaustion),” revealed Siddharth, indicating strongly the level of hardwork and sacrifice he has put in for his son.
While the father was ambitious, the grandmother was cautious of Siddharth Yadav’s career in cricket. “She felt it was like gambling,” the said the young gun. “If nothing happens, zindagi kharab ho jaayegi, aawara ho jaayega (he will ruin his life, he will go rogue). But my father was determined. It was his dream that I had to follow.”
But even though Shravan was putting in the hard yards with his son, what really accelerated his cricketing growth is the encouragement to pursue cricket and the know-how provided by Ajay Sharma and Ajay Yadav. Shravan met Yadav during a U-16 trial in UP where he asked him to be on the lookout for a good professional coach for his son.
This is when Sharma, the former India cricketer, came into Siddharth Yadav’s life and changed it forever with his much-needed guidance and expertise, channelising the cricketer’s passion in the right direction. From there on, Siddharth hasn’t looked back.