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In light of the T20 star’s ODI struggles, Rohit Sharma passionately defends Suryakumar Yadav, saying “…it is our job
The third T20I served as a reminder of Suryakumar Yadav’s skills, but the star hitter is still having trouble finding his form in ODIs.
During India’s third T20I match against the West Indies, Suryakumar Yadav served as a reminder of exactly how destructively excellent he can be on his best day. India have lost both of their openers within the first five overs while chasing a target of 160, trying to prevent their first series loss to the West Indies since 2016.
However, with India’s total at 60/2 at the end of that powerplay, Suryakumar and Tilak Varma gave the impression that the bowlers had done absolutely no harm. Varma was the main wrecker during that time, scoring 15 runs off of just six balls, but he took a backseat as SKY attacked the bowlers in the middle overs. When he was out for 84 off 44, India had already secured a seven-wicket victory.
With the World Cup coming up later in 2023, the Indian team management has been anticipating to witness this version of SKY in ODI cricket this year. Suryakumar, though, has had trouble adjusting to any middle order position in the 50-over style. However, captain Rohit Sharma has stated that a player like Suryakumar has to be given more opportunities, as evidenced by his performance in the third T20I.
His prowess in the T20 format is beyond dispute. The difficulties (in ODIs) are unique. At a promotional event, Rohit stated, “He is really working hard and he is talking to a lot of guys who have played a lot of ODI cricket about what attitude and mindset (to have).”
Bishamber Yadav,27 August, 2023
Rohit brought up the fact that SKY, who was playing for the Mumbai Indians this season, didn’t have a fantastic IPL debut. Despite this, he managed to finish with 605 runs in 16 games at an astounding 181.13 strike rate and 43.21 average.
He is the type of guy that needs to be given the freedom to go and bat in the manner that he does. He cannot be instructed to bat against 100 balls and score 50 runs. Giving a batter like him the buffer of more games is crucial for helping him develop his rhythm and confidence. In the first 4-5 games of the IPL this year, he didn’t have a lot of runs, but see what he did after that.
It is our responsibility to set up such a circumstance and scenario for a player like him; when he enters the game, we know he will win games right away, therefore it’s acceptable if he struggles in the first few contests. He did that in the third T20I; the top batters were out, and Surya went and batted like that.
The ODI statistics for Suryakumar are very different from his T20I performance. SKY has an amazing strike rate of 101.38 in 26 ODIs, but with two half centuries left, they have only amassed 511 runs at an average of 24.33. On the other side, he boasts a staggering strike rate of 174.33 and has scored 1780 runs in 51 T20I games.
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