Prince Yadav Biography: Religion, Age, Height, Family, Real Name, Village Name, Stats, Bowling Speed, IPL Career, India Debut and Net Worth (2026)

Prince’s father, Ram Niwas Yadav, works as an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the Railway Protection Force in Najafgarh. For a long time, he was genuinely worried about his son’s future. Prince was only interested in bowling yorkers in tennis-ball tournaments, and to a father raising a family on a government salary, that must have looked like a dead end rather than a career.

There’s a story his father tells that says a lot about Prince’s temperament even as a young boy. When Ram Niwas voiced his worries, Prince told him plainly, “Papa aap mera chinta karna chhod dijiye. Main apne se kuch kar loonga,” which means, “Dad, stop worrying about me. I will manage something on my own.”

His father wasn’t fully convinced, though. He admits he literally forced Prince to sit for the Delhi Police Constable exam, and Prince was fit enough to clear the physical round. But cricket had already taken hold, and Prince chose to keep chasing it instead of joining the force his father had hoped for.

Prince’s sister works as a government school teacher, and by most accounts, was always the more academically inclined one of the two siblings growing up.

On religion, there’s nothing on record where Prince has spoken about it directly. His surname, Yadav, is associated with a Hindu community that is widespread across northern India, but that’s background context rather than something he’s confirmed himself, so it’s worth treating as an inference rather than a stated fact.

Educational Qualification

Public details about Prince’s formal schooling are thin, partly because search results for his name often get mixed up with other cricketers who share it. What is clear is that cricket, and the physical training that came with switching to the leather ball in his late teens, took up most of his time from his late teenage years onward, similar to many players who come up through India’s grassroots cricket system rather than the traditional education route.

Challenges and Comeback

This is really the heart of Prince Yadav’s story, and it’s the part that most quick bio pages skip past or get wrong entirely.

A late start and a father’s early doubts

As covered above, Prince didn’t even touch a leather ball until he was 18. That alone put him years behind most fast bowlers who get picked up by academies as children. His father’s early opposition, born out of real financial worry rather than any lack of love, added another layer of pressure to a path that already looked unlikely to work out.

The BCCI ban

In December 2019, the BCCI banned Prince Yadav from domestic cricket for two seasons after an age fraud investigation. He had submitted a birth certificate claiming he was born on 12 December 2001. When the BCCI cross-checked his records with the Central Board of Secondary Education, it found he had actually passed his Class X exams back in 2012, which meant his real date of birth was 10 June 1996, several years older than what he had claimed.

This is exactly why you’ll still see 12 December 2001 listed as his birthdate on several cricket databases and franchise websites today. That was the fabricated date tied to the ban, and it has simply never been fully corrected across the internet.

The ban itself was a brutal period for him personally. He later described it in Hindi as “Woh do saal bahut mushkil the. Kaafi logon ne saath chhod diya,” meaning those two years were very difficult, and a lot of people distanced themselves from him during that time. He credited Amit Vashistha for standing by him “like a rock” when others walked away.

Rebuilding through the Delhi Premier League

When Prince returned to the game, he didn’t walk straight back into recognition. He rebuilt his reputation gradually through domestic cricket, and the turning point came through the Delhi Premier League in 2024, playing for Rishabh Pant’s Purani Delhi 6 side. His performances there, 13 wickets in ten matches, caught selectors’ attention and directly led to his white-ball debut for Delhi and, soon after, his IPL contract.

Domestic Cricket Career

Prince made his first-class debut for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy in January 2024 against Jammu and Kashmir. His List A debut for Delhi followed in December 2024 against Bengal.

His real breakthrough season came through white-ball cricket rather than the longer format. In the 2024 Delhi Premier League, playing for Purani Delhi 6, he took 13 wickets in ten matches with a best of 3/15 against Central Delhi Kings.  That form carried into the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he took two big wickets, Nitish Rana and Sameer Rizvi, on his T20 debut against Uttar Pradesh, a day before the IPL 2025 mega auction. He finished that SMAT season as Delhi’s highest wicket taker with 11 wickets.

IPL Career Journey