Mumbai Indians snapped up Suryakumar Yadav in the 2018 Indian Premier League auctions for a paltry sum of Rs 3.2 crore. The middle-order batsman has since gone only from strength to strength. In fact, his former teammate at Kolkata Knight Riders, Gautam Gambhir believes that the franchisee made a mistake in releasing the versatile batter.

Share Market Live

NSE

Fast forward to 2022 and Yadav has become a key part of India's white-ball cricket plans, especially in the shortest version of the game. All this in barely more than a year and a half in international cricket.

Also Read | Stunning performances in Australia fire Suryakumar Yadav to no. 1 spot in T20 Internationals

India's number four in the T20 format has played fearlessly in this period to score at a strike rate of over 170 and averaged over 42 runs per innings. This performance mixed with his charming and calm personality on and off the ground has seen SKY (as he is fondly called) amass a horde of fans. And the more the fans, more your brand value rises!

Up, Up & Away

Nikhil Barda, Head of sales at RISE Worldwide, the agency which manages Yadav has told moneycontrol.com that when SKY signed with them in July 2021, he had a portfolio of four brands. Now that has increased to 10 brands and an additional 7-8 brands are in the pipeline. The team is targeting a portfolio of 20 brands by the end of the year.

India's Mr. 360, as Yadav is being hailed these days because of his all-around play when batting, has also seen his daily endorsement fees triple over the last year.

Moneycontrol reports that this year Yadav has been signed by three brands, men’s grooming company UrbanGabru, FMCG firm Pintola and consumer electronics manufacturer Boult Audio. Bardia believes that the cricketer will add brands from categories like beverages, mobile accessories, media, sports apparel, casual apparel, education abroad services, and three big MNCs (multinational corporations).

Also Read | Suryakumar Yadav reveals he mastered scoop shot while playing rubber-ball cricket

The story behind the rise

Just like his batting technique, SKY’s rise to the top has been unconventional and has been built on a penchant to bounce back from adversity. Tipped to reach the big leagues since he was a youngster, he captained the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team in a largely unsuccessful spell and was later sacked in 2015 after a poor run of form.

Taking measures to avert the slump, Surya fought back with standout displays for Mumbai in the IPL but was still not selected for the tour of Australia in 2020. When he finally made his debut in 2021, he did not waste much time. The first ball the then 31-year-old faced was a Jofra Archer bouncer which was promptly hooked for six and followed it up with two fifties in the next three matches.

Surya has not looked back since. He has become only the second batsman to score over 1,000 T20 runs in a year and is lighting up the ongoing T20 World Cup with 225 runs scored (before the semi-final) at a strike rate of nearly 200.

For our detailed coverage of the T20 World Cup 2022, please click here

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)

First Published:Nov 9, 2022 6:25 PM IST