The boy who stayed: Suryakumar Yadav's 25-year wait for a Sunday in the sun

For a few seconds after the final New Zealand wicket fell in Ahmedabad on Sunday, Suryakumar Yadav looked lost. It was the fleeting disorientation of a man finally measuring the enormity of what he had achieved. At 35, an age when many of his contemporaries are calculating the terms of their retirement, the late bloomer who was only handed the captaincy at 33 had done the unthinkable.

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The tears never came. Instead, there was only the smile, wide, constant and luminous. It stayed with him as he celebrated on the turf with his wife, as he spoke to the broadcasters, and throughout a marathon 35-minute press conference alongside Gautam Gambhir.

If smiles can lift heavy things, Surya’s lifted the darkest cloud hanging over Indian cricket: the curse of Motera. It was the grin of a man who knew that bad luck is no match for a boy who refuses to go home. It was a smile born of a currency he learned to trade decades ago. The smile never went away from Suryakumar Yadav's face on Sunday night (PTI Photo)

THE ROOTS

At the cricket camp in Mumbai’s Anushakti Nagar, patience was a currency every young cricketer had to learn early.

The nets were always crowded. Seniors usually batted first, the better players stayed longer, and the youngest boys often found themselves waiting on the edges of the ground, pads dangling from their arms and bats resting against their shoulders, hoping their turn would eventually come.

For many of the 10-year-olds, that hope had its limits. When the chances to bat became rare and the afternoon stretched on, they slowly drifted away.

But one boy never seemed ready to leave.

While the others packed up, he stayed behind, chasing balls that rolled towards the boundary, throwing them back to the nets, volunteering for fielding drills even when he had not been asked. If there was work to be done on the ground, he found a way to do it.

Anything that allowed him to remain just a little longer.

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One day, h