Hum Delhi se hain, aur wahan thoda hum aggressive hi khelte hain. [I am from Delhi and there, we play aggressive cricket.]
The cricket player Yash Dhull can be summed up in this one sentence. When batting, the 22-year-old is always moving. When he isn’t hitting boundaries, he walks down to the fast bowlers, gives the spinners the charge, and is constantly searching for quick singles.
At the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence Ground in Bengaluru, that was the theme of Dhull’s innings on both occasions during North Zone’s Duleep Trophy match against East Zone. His aggression cost him his wicket at 39 in the first innings, but he made sure he didn’t lose again in the face of a tired East Zone assault.
On day three of the Duleep Trophy opening, Dhull hit 133 off just 157 balls, adding a 240-run partnership with captain Ankit Kumar to help North Zone secure their place in the semi-finals. He was equally skilled against pace as he was against the spinners, using a combination of restraint and controlled aggression.
With strokes from all over the field, he scored 47 off 53 against the fast bowlers and 86 off 104 against the spinners. His inventiveness included two upper-cuts against fast bowler Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, two paddle sweeps against left-arm spinner Manishi, and a thrash through the covers off pacer Mukhtar Hussain, in addition to his strong defense and use of his feet to deflect the bowlers’ lengths.
“My simple plan was that I would play my game. The wicket was seaming a little but I had planned that I will play attacking cricket,” Dhull said after his innings. “My first intent is to always score runs and score them quickly. I was also carrying plenty of confidence behind me. And I came here and played accordingly.”
Dhull scored his century off 112. He also completed his fifty off 49 balls. He played and missed a number of occasions, especially against Mohammed Shami, and had a few anxious moments when he was trapped in the 90s for a while. Dhull, however, made sure he remained focused.
“Sometimes you collect runs quickly and then there are times when you can’t score and you have to bide your time”, he said. “That’s what happened. But I was calm, staying in the present and not taking any pressure. I was waiting for that right ball to score.”
Dhull is playing at his best going into the Duleep Trophy. With 444 runs in ten innings at 49.33 in the 2024–25 Ranji Trophy, he was Delhi’s second-highest run scorer. He then had an incredible Delhi Premier League season, scoring 435 runs in nine innings at an average of 87 and a strike rate of 167.31.
Although things are improving now, the situation was very different. Only a year and a half ago, in June, Dhull needed surgery to fix a hole in his heart that measured 17 mm. A cricket player is always moving, hopping from one competition to another, moving from one place to another, training, and adhering to a rigid schedule. For over two months, however, Dhull’s life ceased to exist.
“That time taught me a lot about myself, about my game, about my lifestyle, how to grow, how to improve,” Dhull stated. “I have to deal with such things at the same time. There will be fluctuations. I must get past them and go on. I just want to be in the here and now. I’d rather not dwell on the past or the future.
“So much has happened. Now, I just enjoy my game. I spend time on it and that gives me all the happiness.”
Dhull says he “didn’t have any option” but to get the surgery done. What he ensured during that time was not to think too much about the future. During the downtime, he also picked up a hobby. “I used to play snooker a lot and spent a lot of time there,” Dhull said. “That game also taught me a lot. My mind often used to wander around, I wasn’t concentrating much. That game taught me to stay more focused.”
Now that he’s over a life-changing event, Dhull is attempting to live each day as it comes. His next target is South Zone, and since he got off to a good start, he will be hoping that his stocks keep rising during the season.
