’s journey from tennis-ball cricket on dusty grounds in Delhi’s outskirts to a key role in India’s T20 attack is built on pace, hard work and smart execution. The 24-year-old Lucknow Super Giants fast bowler from Najafgarh has turned the lessons of his early days into a weapon that batters find hard to handle in the final overs.
Prince Yadav believes tennis-ball cricket gave him his quick arm speed. He often practised with a wet tennis ball, which grew heavier on dewy Delhi evenings. Bowling with that extra weight trained him to fire in yorkers as fast as he could and helped build the strength and consistency he now shows in matches.
signed at his base price before the 2025 season. He took three wickets in his first IPL campaign, a modest start.
IPL 2026 was his breakout season. He picked up 16 wickets in 14 matches and finished as LSG’s leading wicket-taker. One of his standout moments came against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, when a sharp delivery jagged back through Virat Kohli’s defence and knocked over his off stump.
Across two seasons, he has taken 19 wickets from 20 IPL matches.
Those performances earned him an India call-up. He made his ODI debut against Afghanistan in June 2026, then took 3/21 on his T20I debut against Ireland later that month.
has quickly become a specialist in the 16th to 20th overs. He bowls fast yorkers, clocking speeds around 140 kmph, and uses low full tosses as his back-up ball. In the 10 death overs he has bowled for India, he has conceded just under 10 runs an over, taken five wickets and given away only one six.
He mostly aims at the base of off stump or just outside it, which gives batters little room to work the ball behind the wicketkeeper. Even when he misses his yorker, the delivery tends to become a low full toss rather than an easy length ball to hit.
He often helps set his own field. Third man and fine leg stay deep for the edges, while mid-wicket is left fairly open, because a well-placed yorker is very hard to hit in that direction.
Since switching to the leather ball, Prince Yadav has added more variety to his bowling and shown he can trouble quality batters. The yorker is still his signature weapon, first learned on Delhi’s dusty grounds and now sharpened for international cricket.
