A year after his surgery to repair a hole in his heart, Yash Dhull has had a fruitful DPL campaign and is gung-ho about continuing his comeback
Daya Sagar25-Aug-2025An Under-19 World Cup trophy as captain. An IPL contract. Twin hundreds on Ranji Trophy debut. A century on Duleep Trophy debut. The big time just around the corner?Yash Dhull’s stocks had been rising steadily when, at 21, he came to know in June last year that he had a hole – of 17mm – in his heart. Dhull had to undergo surgery and had to rest for a month to recover. Age is on his side, so in August, he returned to action with the Delhi Premier League (DPL) but his body couldn’t cope with the strain. He had to withdraw from the tournament where he was leading the Central Delhi Kings side.A year later, Dhull is back in the DPL and is hoping to use it as a platform to return to the conversation as far as the BCCI and the IPL teams are concerned. This time, he has managed to make a mark.Related
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Yash Dhull hits century months after heart surgery
In six innings so far in DPL 2025, Dhull has smashed 364 runs at a strike rate of 172.51 and an average of 121.33 with the help of two centuries. His next assignment will be the Duleep Trophy, where he will turn out for North Zone from August 28 in Bengaluru.”It was around the same time last year, June-July, but I can’t remember properly because actually I don’t want to,” Dhull tells ESPNcricinfo about the low. “It was a really tough time. I didn’t want to get the surgery done because of the DPL and the domestic season, which was to follow, but the doctor said I had no option. I was on bed rest for one entire month after the surgery.”Then I gradually tried to train but my body couldn’t keep up. My blood pressure and heart rate would shoot up when I tried to run and I would be out of breath. The doctor told me anything could happen if blood pressure shot up, if I tried to overdo things. I was under heavy medication, which would make me drowsy. So I had to withdraw from the DPL and go back to my bed rest.”As his health improved, Dhull found he had a month-and-a-half to prepare for the 2024-25 domestic season. He had his family, the doctors and the coaches in his corner, but this time Dhull didn’t rush into things. He went one step at a time and at the Ranji Trophy – which was split in two phases – he played all seven games for Delhi, scoring 444 runs with two centuries at an average of 49.33.
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“I knew I was going to make a comeback,” Dhull says. “I had the self-belief that not only would I return to action at the right time but also perform well. The century against Tamil Nadu was one of my best knocks because even my family was scared whether I had regained the stamina to play a long innings. I not only did well in a pressure match but batted the whole day against a strong side like Tamil Nadu. It was really satisfying.That century against Tamil Nadu was, for obvious reasons, an emotional moment, which reflected in his aggressive celebration when he took his helmet off, spread his arms wide and let out a scream… one could spot the tears in his eyes. The celebration came out again recently when he scored his maiden DPL century, which was an unbeaten 101 off 56 deliveries.”That surgery was a kind of setback for me in my cricket career,” Dhull said. “Sometimes I used to feel that I would never play again. So whenever I score a century now, the emotions come out on their own.”
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Dhull’s name had started doing the rounds in Indian cricket soon after he finished India’s victorious Under-19 World Cup campaign in 2022 with an average of 76.33, which was soon followed by a Ranji debut for Delhi. When that chapter started with twin scores of 113 and 113* – also against Tamil Nadu – he was rewarded with call-ups for the Duleep Trophy and the Irani Cup later that year and made his white-ball debuts for Delhi.After a century on debut in the Duleep Trophy as well, another step-up came in the form of being selected for India A for the Bangladesh tour in December 2022, and captaincy for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy.Yash Dhull celebrates after scoring the maiden century of the Delhi Premier League 2025•Delhi Premier League T20To top it all, he also had an IPL contract of INR 50 lakh with Delhi Capitals where he would join his Delhi seniors Rishabh Pant and Ishant Sharma. In July 2023, he was also captain of India A in the Emerging Asia Cup, where he led the likes of Abhishek Sharma, B Sai Sudharsan, Riyan Parag, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana, who have all gone on to play for India since then.With all these soaring highs also came some disappointing lows in the form of inconsistent performances, and opportunities for the India A side soon stopped coming, and after the IPL 2025 mega auction, he was without a contract.”No matter who you are, a sportsperson’s career is bound to go through ups and downs, and you have to learn from them,” Dhull, still only 22, says. “How will you learn without these ups and downs? In this journey, there are more struggles than success. Earlier I used to live in my past and overthink my future so I could hardly cash in on my present. Now I try to stay in my present and focus on the opportunities that come my way.”For now, my focus is the DPL and the next game here. After that, Duleep Trophy is going to be very crucial for me. I’m going step by step now and not thinking too far ahead. I stay in the present and try to enjoy every moment now, because if I perform well, things will fall in place for me on their own. I just have to keep performing and wait for my time.”This interview was first published in ESPNcricinfo Hindi.