- In full:
- Suryakumar Ashok Yadav
- Bynames:
- SKY and Mr. 360
- Born:
- September 14, 1990, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India (age 36)
Suryakumar Yadav
In which format has Suryakumar Yadav played for India?
What is unique about Suryakumar Yadavâs batting style?
Who were Suryakumar Yadavâs mentors?
What significant achievement did Suryakumar Yadav accomplish in 2022?
What nickname did Gautam Gambhir give Suryakumar Yadav?
Suryakumar Yadav (born September 14, 1990, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is an Indian cricket player who bats right-handed and occasionally bowls right-arm off-spin. He primarily represents the national team in the Twenty20 (T20) format. He is regarded as an expert in 360-degree batting, an attacking style that uses a wide range of strokes to score runs across all areas of the cricket ground, and is famous for hitting boundaries behind the batterâs wicket. Yadav made his T20 International (T20I) debut in March 2021 and played his first One Day International (ODI) in July that year. He first captained the Indian team in a T20I series in 2023 and was appointed the permanent captain for the format after his predecessor, Rohit Sharma, retired from T20I cricket in 2024.
Early life and career
Yadav was born to Ashok Yadav, an engineer working at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), and Swapna Yadav. His family was from Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, and, as a young boy, Yadav began learning cricket from his uncle Vinod Kumar Yadav in Varanasi. He also trained under cricket coaches Ashok Kamat and Ashok Aswalkar at the BARC cricket ground. At age 12 he enrolled in the Elf Vengsarkar Academy (now Vengsarkar Cricket Academy) run by Dilip Vengsarkar, former Indian cricketer and member of the 1983 Cricket World Cup-winning team.
Yadav made his domestic cricket debut for Mumbai in List A (domestic one-day format), T20, and first-class (domestic multiday format) tournaments in 2010. He was the leading run scorer for Mumbai during the 2011â12 Ranji Trophy season. He was briefly appointed captain of the Mumbai team in the 2014â15 season and was part of the squads that won the 2015â16 Ranji Trophy and the 2018â19 List A Vijay Hazare Trophy. He was once again appointed captain of the Mumbai team in the 2019â20 season and led the team until his international debut in 2021.
International career
Yadav made his international debut for the Indian team in a home T20I series against England in March 2021. He did not get to bat in his first match, but in his first T20I innings later in the series he scored a half-century (50 runs or more). He became the first Indian menâs T20I batter to hit the first ball of his international career for six runs (awarded for hitting the ball past the boundary line without it touching the ground). Yadav made his ODI debut in July that year in a series against Sri Lanka. He played his first (and only) Test match in February 2023 against Australia.
Yadavâs excellent form and innovative batting style led to him becoming a regular member of Indiaâs T20I lineup. He was a member of the Indian squad for the 2021 International Cricket Council (ICC) Menâs T20 World Cup. In July 2022 he scored his first century (100 runs or more in an innings) in T20I during Indiaâs tour of England, finishing with a score of 117 runs off 55 balls. In October that year he reached the number one spot on the ICC Menâs T20I Batting Rankings for the first time and was the third highest run scorer during the 2022 ICC Menâs T20 World Cup, helping India reach the semifinals. He was named the ICC Menâs T20I Cricketer of the Year in 2022 and 2023.
One of the most memorable moments of Yadavâs career occurred during the 2024 T20 World Cup final, when he took an impressive catch near the boundary to dismiss South African batter David Miller. After leaping to catch the ball inches inside the boundary marker, Yadav tossed it back into the air to avoid carrying it over the boundary as his momentum took him beyond the playing field, which would have resulted in six runs for the batting side. Yadav regained his balance, reentered the field, and calmly completed the catch.
In 2023 Yadav continued to excel in T20Is, scoring two centuries and five half-centuries in the calendar year. However, he was unable to deliver similar performances in the ODI format. Though he was part of Indiaâs squad for the 2023 ODI World Cup, he scored just 106 runs in seven innings during the tournament, in which India remained undefeated until losing to Australia in the final. In November 2023 Yadav captained India for the first time in his career during a T20I series against Australia. In July 2024 he was a member of the Indian team that won the 2024 ICC Menâs T20 World Cup and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appointed him the permanent captain of the Indian T20I squad following Sharmaâs retirement from the format.
He led India to victory in the 2025 Menâs T20 Asia Cup in September that year. He also captained the Indian team during the 2026 Menâs T20 World Cup.
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Franchise career
In a 2023 interview posted by the BCCI, Yadav explained that he was given the now-famous SKY nickname by Gautam Gambhir, who was then captain of KKR and made Indiaâs coach in 2024.
The Mumbai Indians (MI) signed Yadav ahead of the 2012 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, but he played just one match and was dismissed without scoring a run. He was then signed by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2013 and spent the next four seasons with the team. He was part of the KKR team that won the IPL 2014 championship. In 2018 he moved back to MI and scored 512 runs in a breakout season, which included four half-centuries. He became one of MIâs most important batters over the next few seasons, scoring at least 300 runs in each edition of the tournament for the next seven seasons, achieving a personal best of 717 runs during IPL 2025. He was also part of MIâs 2019 and 2020 title-winning seasons.
Playing style
Yadav is famous for his distinctive batting style tailored for the gameâs shortest T20 format, which involves a combination of aggressive, innovative stroke play and the ability to score boundaries all around the field. He makes extensive use of the sweep (hitting the ball to the leg side while kneeling) and scoop shots (angling the bat to guide the ball aerially behind the batterâs wicket) to target the boundaries closest to the batter. He explained his tactics in a 2023 interview with ESPN:
The boundaries behind [the stumps] are actually 59 to 60 meters, so I just try to clear them.
Early in his career Yadav introduced fresh techniques to the game, including unorthodox shots, aggressive tactics to exploit fielding gaps, and tailored plans against different bowlers. He switched to a more traditional batting style after becoming captain, often starting his innings more cautiously before accelerating toward the end.