‘It took me two years to get India call again’ - Yash Dayal reflects on his cricketing journey

In recent years, India pacer Yash Dayal has had ups and downs, from being hit five consecutive sixes by Rinku Singh in IPL to his resilience to get back on track, Dayal’s journey has been nothing but inspirational. 

With the Indian team preparing to take on Bangladesh in a two-game Test series, Yash Dayal received his maiden Test call-up to the national team. Right after being selected, Dayal made the first call to his father, Chandarpal Dayal, and informed him of being selected. 

“It took me two years to get an India call again. This is for a Test match, the format you love the most,” Dayal told his father as quoted by the Indian Express. It is worth noting that Dayal was called up for the ODI series against Bangladesh in 2022 but was ruled out due to injury. 

Also Read: Yash Dayal earns maiden call-up; Pant, Kohli return as India name squad for first Bangladesh Test

Interestingly, the traumatic over from the IPL 2023 took quite a toll on the UP pacer. Yash became the target of memes after that, but according to his coach, Amit Pal, that over went on to toughen him. 

“It was just not his day. But if every cricketer, who has played at that level have seen something like that in their career. Everyone remembers Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes and his all-round ability that helped us win the 2011 ODI World Cup, but the same cricketer was hit for five sixes by Dimitri Mascarenhas. There are many such examples, did they stop playing cricket? No, they continued to work on their skills and came out a better cricketer,” Pal said. 

The pacer has received his India maiden call-up for the first Bangladesh Test. According to reports, there was a three-way race between Yash Dayal, Arshdeep Singh, and Khaleel Ahmad for the spot of the left-arm pacer in India’s squad for the Bangladesh Test series. A BCCI official in the know also stated that Yash Dayal was selected ahead of the others due to his experience playing red-ball cricket. 

“Look all three of them were good but two things that went in Yash’s favour were his experience of playing the red ball and his consistency. Yash Dayal has played more first-class cricket than both Arshdeep and Khaleel,” the official said.