Delhi: Before this year’s WPL auction, when the names of the young Indian talents on whom the franchise would keep an eye were being written, one name was the most surprising. This was the name of Diya Yadav, a tremendous top-order batsman from Haryana. The special quality is that he not only played cricket with Shefali Verma, he also played like her. The proof is this year’s Senior Women’s T20 tournament in which she scored 298 runs in 8 innings at an average of 59.50 and 128 strike rate with three scores of 50+. The same form continued in the Inter-Zonal T20 and batting at a strike rate of 150, North Zone took it to the final. In this discussion it is important to mention that she has just crossed 16 years of age.

Diya becomes the youngest player to get WPL contract

All these thinking did not go wrong and Diya became the youngest player to get a contract to play in WPL. As always, the auction was filled with excitement and expectation, with big prices and unsold deals, but a player like Diya Yadav showed that new talent is coming to the fore. Delhi Capitals bought Diya at her base price of Rs 10 lakh. Coincidentally, here also I got the support of Shefali Verma who was already in the retained list of this team. Shefali welcomed Diya online after she was selected player of the match in the World Cup final in Mumbai.

Aggressive batting like Shefali Verma

Both have played together for Haryana. Diya not only observed Shefali’s aggressive batting style closely but also tried to play like it. A hint of this style was found two years ago during the Under-15 Women’s One-Day Cup in Raipur. She scored 213* runs in just 125 balls against Tripura and at that very moment she came in the sight of the talent scout of Delhi Capitals. Seeing the way she played cricket in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy this year, it was assumed that Diya was ready to play senior professional cricket from the age group.

The team did not hide it and hence taking Diya in the team for just Rs 10 lakh may not be a master stroke for WPL 2026 but it is a wonderful investment for the future. Diya entered WPL with her own identity. Neither big name nor big cheque, but the youngest age and this created a discussion in the entire cricket world.

Diya’s story

Diya’s story is also similar to that of new players in cricket. Saw father Rakesh Yadav playing cricket. He played Delhi Under-19 cricket and Diya learned to hold the bat from him even before she turned 7 years old. Interest in cricket arose because of the cricket environment. Got motivation after seeing boys playing street cricket in the society. After watching India lose to England at Lord’s in the 2017 ODI World Cup final, I shed tears but also got the enthusiasm to play well myself. The family returned back to Haryana during Covid and this proved to be a master stroke decision for Diya’s cricket.

Now the father hopes that the qualified coach of Delhi Capitals will further hone Diya’s talent as a professional. ‘I will play with such big players for the first time. Have played with seniors, but now I will play with international players. I want to learn a lot about their game plan.

In the last season of WPL, G Kamalini made the record of being the youngest player in WPL by debuting at the age of 16 years and 213 days while playing for Mumbai Indians against Gujarat Giants in Vadodara on 18 February (Previous record: Shabnam Shakeel 16 years and 263 days). Diya is ready to break his record this year.