CHENNAI: Here’s a stat that sums up Suryakumar Yadav as a T20 batter. In the 20 innings the right-hander has made 10 runs or more this year, Suryakumar’s average strike rate into the first delivery he faced is 198.33. The first punch has to be his. That is how he approaches the shortest format of the game right from the first ball he faced in international cricket — it’s hard to forget the hook shot he played off England’s Jofra Archer for a six in Ahmedabad on his debut.
He has to dictate the terms and not the bowler. Such an attitude is not uncommon. Most finishers play that role in T20 cricket. Suryakumar isn’t a finisher. He is a No 4, which is arguably the trickiest position to play in the shortest format. In fact, he has batted below that position only four times in his short career. There are few who could take such an approach as Suryakumar at that position - Glenn Maxwell, Glenn Phillips and Rovman Powell for example.
But what makes Suryakumar stand out among the few is sustainability. He doesn’t just start at a higher strike but also has managed to maintain the same through the course of his innings in a consistent manner. That his T20I strike rate at No 4 - 186.35 - is the highest for any batter with more than 10 innings in that position is a testament to that.
In the lead-up to the T20 World Cup in Australia, Suryakumar was regarded as the best T20 batter in the world, leave alone India. His name was the first one on the team sheet. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any challenges. He had never played on Australian soil before. In fact, it was the first time he was in Australia. The Indian No 4 said so on Thursday. With high-end pace is not particularly his strong suit, how he was going to adapt to the bouncy conditions Down Under was one of the interesting prospects to look forward to. And as expected, he was tested by Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf in the clash against Pakistan. It was a rare occasion when he did not step up and deliver when India needed him.
This is why, before the game against the Netherlands, the focus was on Suryakumar to see how he is going to react to this challenge he has never faced before. And he came out with flying colours, smashing an unbeaten 51 from 25 balls. It was a typical Suryakumar inning.
Every ball and every shot was an event. There was a boundary off the third ball he faced, inside out over the infield on the off-side, on-the-up cover drives, his trademark scoops, flicks between fine-leg and square-leg, lofts down the ground as the 32-year-old put on an exhibition.
In a game where both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli registered half-centuries, it was Suryakumar who stole the headlines with his 360-degree strokeplay. Ask him about how Rohit and Virat are seeing themselves before taking the attack to the bowlers in contrast with his approach, he would say every player has a role and he is just doing his.
Ask him how he is fast becoming the biggest threat for opponents in the star-studded Indian line-up, he will just smile. “I'll take it as a compliment and won't comment on it. Just be me and what I'm doing, I think I'll just do that when I'm going in to bat,” he would say in the post-match press conference on Thursday."
Behind every player’s purple patch, there is a process and Suryakumar is no different. As someone who had to wait for years to get his time with the Indian team, he leaves no stone unturned in practice sessions. “So, for example, if I am targeting a few balls, and I have to get N number of runs, if I get out, I just come out. That day I won’t go out to bat again. The same thing I've been reflecting on when I go into the games,” he said.
Suryakumar might not come out and say that he is the first name other teams should be wary of. But the world knows it. Rohit knows it too. After all, as the Indian skipper said ahead of the World Cup, he is the X-factor for this Indian team.
Brief scores: India 179/2 in 20 ovs (Kohli 62 n.o, Rohit 53, Kohli 51 n.o) bt Netherlands 123/9 in 20 ovs (Van Beek 20; Bhuvneshwar 2/9, Axar 2/18).