Sanjay Yadav (cricketer)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sanjay Yadav

• Born in Gorakhpur and raised in Tamil Nadu’s Hosur, Sanjay Yadav is a professional cricketer who plays domestic cricket for Meghalaya.

• In 2000, Sanjay’s father, Ram Singh Yadav, who was employed as a daily-wage painter in Tamil Nadu’s Hosur, decided to move his family – wife, 5-year-old Sanjay Yadav, and his three siblings to Hosur.

  

• Sanjay used to play tennis ball cricket in his school and also participated in the local cricket tournaments around Chennai.

• His cricket coach, M. Premnath, who runs a cricket academy by the name Future India Cricket Academy, spotted him during a school cricket match and advised him to join his cricket academy in Hosur. Sanjay went ahead and joined the academy; however, he had to drop off owing to a lack of funds to pay his academy fees. When Premnath could not see Sanjay at the academy for a couple of weeks, he reached out to Sanjay and told him to continue training without paying fees.

• Sanjay’s brother, Sonu Yadav, is also a cricketer and who has represented Tamil Nadu at various levels. They have even played against each other in various cricket tournaments.
  

• Cricket earned Sanjay a seat in Chennai’s Loyola College. In his first year, on 3 February 2017, Sanjay made his debut for Tamil Nadu, against Kerala in the South Zone Inter-State T20 Tournament. The same year, he also broke into the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) when he was picked by the VB Thiruvallur Veerans. He showcased some cracking performances in his debut TNPL season.
  

• Usually, players are picked by the IPL teams considering their performances in first-class cricket; however, Sanjay’s cricket game was so good that he got a Rs 10 lakh contract with the KKR ahead of the IPL 2017. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a chance to play a match in that season, but the experience that he gathered by practicing with international players exponentially improved his cricketing skills.

  

• Thereafter, Sanjay played various cricket tournaments in Tamil Nadu; however, he could not find a place in Tamil Nadu’s first-class cricket team as the team was already stacked with experienced spin bowling all-rounders. Seeing this, Sanjay decided to further continue his cricket career as a guest player for Meghalaya’s cricket team.

• In December 2019, Sanjay made a dream debut in first-class cricket, bagging 9 wickets and scoring 61 runs in his maiden Ranji Trophy match against Nagaland, followed by 8 wickets in the next match against Puducherry.

  

• When the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy season ended for Meghalaya, Sanjay finished with 55 wickets and 603 runs in the 9 matches that he played. These were the second-best performance statistics in the history of the Ranji Trophy. ^[5]CricTracker

• Sanjay Yadav single-handedly won matches for Meghalaya. In a 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019 match against Mumbai, he contributed with the ball to restrict the Mumbai side to 158 and then rescued Meghalaya by playing an inning of 55 runs in 44 balls. ^[6]The Hindu This performance attracted Sunrisers Hyderabad’s attention, who later bought him for Rs 20 lakh ahead of the IPL 2020.

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Welcome to the #SRHFamily, Sanjay Yadav! ? . #IPLAuction #SRH2020Unlocked #OrangeArmy #SRH #IPL #Hyderabad #Cricket

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