Lucknow Super Giants must have felt the pressure when their star pacer Mayank Yadav walked off the field after conceding 13 runs in his opening over. LSG were defending a total of 163 for 5 against the power-packed batting line-up of Gujarat Titans and Mayank, who was their Player of the Match in the previous two games, was out of the ground with a side strain. GT might have seen this as an opportunity and so did a youngster in the LSG team - Yash Thakur. He was brought to bowl the final over of the powerplay. At that point in time, GT were cruising at 47 without loss.
Thakur removed Shubman Gill in the very first over and never looked back in the game. What followed was a double-wicket maiden from the pacer, the first in IPL 2024. He finished with figures of 5 for 30 in 3.5 overs, which also happened to be the first five-wicket haul in IPL 2024.
Who is Yash Thakur?
Yash, who idolised Umesh Yadav, also plays for the Vidarbha team in the domestic format. Duly impressed by Umesh's bowling during his forming years, Yash followed the footsteps of the veteran pacer to become what he is today.
As surprising as it may sound, Yash wanted to become a wicketkeeper at the start of his cricket career. However, it was former Vidarbha captain and coach Praveen Hinganikar, who saw him bowl in nets and then advised him to make a change to fast bowling.
Yash's source of inspiration behind wicketkeeping was MS Dhoni and Hinganikar did have a tough task in hand to persuade the youngster to see his career in fast bowling. He, however, managed to do it.
Yash has played 22 First-Class games for Vidarbha and picked 67 wickets. He has played 37 List A matches, scalping 54 wickets. Yash also holds the experience of playing 48 T20 matches in which he has taken 69 wickets.
Lucknow Super Giants bought the right-arm pacer ahead of IPL 2023 for a sum of Rs 45 lakh.
Yash played 9 games for the franchise that season and picked 13 wickets while bowling at an economy of 9.08. IPL 2024 is also turning out to be a good season for Yash as he has picked a total of 6 wickets in the first three games.
