Suryakumar Yadav storms back into form; India get timely T20 World Cup boost

RAIPUR: Over the last few months, India’s T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav has often talked about how well he was batting in the nets, and that it was “just a matter of a few innings” before he got going again. On the field, though, the numbers told a different story. The 35-year-old went 23 innings without scoring a fifty. In 20 of those innings, he could not cross even the 25-run mark.


The pressure was mounting on him and a school of thought suggested that Suryakumar had got a long rope because of his position as India skipper. It was something that India’s Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill was not given, having been omitted from the T20 World Cup squad.



The Mumbai Indians batter’s 22-ball 32 in the first game in Nagpur, his 100th T20I, was one of the slowest innings of his career. Importantly, he spent time at the crease. On Friday, he took it a notch higher and showed a glimpse of what made him the No. 1 T20I batter with an unbeaten 37-ball 82, which came on the back of nine fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 221.62. It was his first half-century since the 75 he scored against Bangladesh in Oct 2024 in Hyderabad. The knock settled his and the team management’s nerves going into the T20 World Cup.

In Raipur as well, he was cautious to start with, as he could afford to do so after Ishan Kishan started to tonk the ball to all parts of the ground. Once he got his eye in, Surya got his trademark scoops and lap shots going. Of late, opposition teams have bowled a bit fuller to Surya and a touch wide outside off-stump, so the batter could not play the pick-up shot over the on-side towards midwicket and fine-leg.

Over the last few months, though, Surya has put in a lot of work to open up other scoring zones, especially down the ground and on the off side. While he still managed to hit three sixes over fine leg, what impressed was his shots in front of the wicket, from long-on to cover.

Suryakumar did another important thing. He cut himself off from social media and anaesthetised the demons inside his head by shutting off outside noise and listening only to the “coach at home”. “We all have a coach at home, the one who we are married to. She (wife Devisha) kept asking me to take some time. She had watched me so closely. She can read my mind,” he told bcci.tv.

Luck was on his side on Friday as Mark Chapman could not hang on to a difficult chance and parried it over the boundary line when he was on 43, and Santner dropped him on 64. Even the edges evaded fielders, which was not the case over the last one-and-a-half years. He took 24 off the ninth over bowled by Zak Foulkes and never looked back.

Shivam Dube, who took India home alongside Surya, enjoyed the fireworks from the other end. “I was asked about Surya’s form not so long ago. That’s when I said that ‘when he shows his form, the world will know what type of player he is’. Today, he showed why Suryakumar Yadav is the No. 1 T20 batter. I enjoyed it a lot and it felt good to see,” said Dube.


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