A mother’s fear, a pacer’s future: How walking away from Wushu shaped Yash Thakur the fast bowler

There is something quite endearing about hit-the-deck pacers. While new ball bowlers entice wickets with their guile and craft, the middle-over enforcers are often dealt a tough hand, especially in the 50-over format.

With little to no movement after the first PowerPlay and the four-fielders-outside-the-circle rule, they are left with very little room to manoeuvre. This predicament has forced them to replenish their arsenal with a variety of short balls and cutters, hoping to capitalise on the batter’s mistake.

Carving a niche in this journey of recalibration is Vidarbha’s Yash Thakur. Consistent performances across all domestic formats have resulted in call-ups to the Duleep Trophy and India A, nudging him to the doorstep of the national side.

The switch that sparked a career

Sport has always been a welcome guest in the Thakur household. Yash’s father, Ravi Singh Thakur, was a state-level judoka during his heyday, dabbling in a little bit of karate and cricket on the side.

Yash began his formative steps in sport not on the field, but on the mat, practising Wushu. After three years of indulgence, where he even bagged a silver medal in a state-level tourney, an incident changed the course of his journey.

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During a district match, Yash had knocked his opponent out to seal victory. When his dad returned home to deliver the news, he was met by concern rather than confelicity from his mother, Kajal Thakur, who feared one day her son could also meet with the same fate. There ended his pursuit of the martial art form.

Yash had to find a different way to harness his unbridled energy. Fortunately, the answer lay just a stone’s throw away from home at the Praveen Hinganikar Cricket Academy.

Cricketing influence

“Every child wants to play cricket. I used to play gully cricket as a kid. I was watching a cricket club from my terrace. I decided to enroll myself there,” said Yash in a conversation with Sportstar.

“I am a huge admirer of MS Dhoni. I started as a wicketkeeper. I bowled once at the club for ‘time pass’. My coach said I have a great future in bowling. So, I decided just like he does with the bat, I will finish matches with the ball for my team,” he added.

Yash was selected to represent Vidarbha in the Under-16s, but did not play a single match. His first year with the U-19s also saw only a solitary appearance. Since then, he has been an ever-present. It was during this climb up the ladder that Yash met India pacer Umesh Yadav, who proved to be his greatest inspiration with the ball in hand.

“It was a dream come true moment for me,” the 27-year-old reminisced. “It was on my first day at the VCA facility in Nagpur. He had come to practice. I started following him, his work ethic. I started taking bowling a lot more seriously after that,” he explained.

Rubbing shoulders with the best

Yash has been around the Vidarbha senior team since his List A debut in the 2016/17 season. His ascent picked up speed when he was bought by the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for INR 45 lakh. He played 19 games across his first two seasons, picking up 24 wickets.

“I got to see many players from up close during the IPL. It is an experience in itself when you are learning from those you admired once. Cricket is a game where you learn something new every day,” the pacer said. “I wasn’t expecting to play when LSG bought me in 2023, but they backed me right from the start. It was great to share a dressing room with Gauti [Gautam Gambhir] bhai and KL [Rahul] bhai.

The 2025 auction earned him a bigger payday as he was snapped up by the Punjab Kings for INR 1.6 crore. He got to play only two matches through the season, but Yash says there were countable things to pick from that environment.

“When you have a great captain in Shreyas Iyer and a great coach [Ricky Ponting] who was one of the best leaders ever in the world, their winning mindset keeps the entire team positive,” he said. “From day one at the camp to the final, our only mantra was to lift the trophy. Losing a game never ruined our team’s confidence and atmosphere,” he added.

Yash is on the last few laps of the race to realise a lifelong dream. He knows he is almost there, but he isn’t one to fret about it and lose momentum.

“The end goal is obviously to play for India, but I am not thinking about that. I am in good shape. I am just following my process, just how my body reacts and following that direction. I am just taking one step at a time,” the bowler said.

The decision to convince her son to turn away from a sparring sport might have stemmed from a moment of motherly protectiveness, but inadvertently, Kajal has aided the rise of a strong contender for the repeatedly discussed hit-the-deck bowling option, especially in the one-day format.

Published on Jan 02, 2026