Dream is to play senior World Cup: Yash Dhull opens up on heart surgery and comeback | EXCLUSIVE

New Delhi: For three months the only view Yash Dhull had was the ceiling of his Delhi room. The 2022 Under-19 World Cup-winning captain, once accustomed to commanding the middle order, was flat on his back, recovering from a procedure few athletes ever face—open-heart surgery to close a congenital hole that had silently drained his energy for years.

The warning signs had been impossible to ignore: breathlessness after routine sessions, sudden weight loss, a fatigue that no amount of rest could fix. National matches ended with the 20-year-old slumped in the dressing-room chair, lungs burning. During a camp, physios noticed his deteriorating fitness and ordered extensive tests. The verdict—a sizeable atrial septal defect—stunned even the consultants. “They asked how I was still playing,” Dhull told TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive conversation. “Once detected, surgery was the only option. My family and I decided to act immediately; waiting could have complicated everything.”

The operation, performed in early 2025, required a full sternotomy and an initial ban on travel, training or any spike in heart rate. Dhull’s days were reduced to short corridor walks and a single, repeated question to his surgeon: “Main kab se cricket khel sakta hoon?” The answer, at first, was indefinite. When he finally jogged a lap of his local ground, he vomited halfway. An attempted return for Delhi Premier League 2025 was aborted after his blood pressure spiked to dangerous levels. “It was frustrating, but rushing would have been catastrophic,” he admits. “I prayed, trained lightly, and let the body dictate terms.”

By winter the scar had healed and, with it, Dhull’s conviction. He resumed batting in the nets, increased workload incrementally, and cleared a battery of cardiac stress tests. The comeback, however, collided with the IPL 2026 auction where, after three seasons with Delhi Capitals, the batter went unsold. “Yes, there was disappointment,” he concedes, “but you can’t park yourself there. Opportunities come unannounced; my job is to be ready the moment they do.”

Readiness, for Dhull, has a specific finish line—the senior Men’s ODI World Cup. Only six Indians have captained the country to U-19 titles; Dhull joined that list in 2022. Now he wants to follow Virat Kohli’s trajectory from youth glory to global champion in the senior arena. “I speak regularly with Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma and Axar Patel. They keep drilling one thought—prepare so hard that when the call comes, you cash in,” he says.

The path ahead is crowded—domestic runs, fitness benchmarks, fierce competition—but the roadmap is simple. “Health first, runs next, India cap after that. Every cricketer dreams of a World Cup; I’m confident mine will happen,” Dhull insists, tapping the faded surgical scar as if to remind himself how far he has already come.