Cricket News

‘I have learnt watching the senior players…’ – Suryakumar Yadav credits MS Dhoni for making him good T20I player

Suryakumar Yadav has taken giant strides in T20I cricket for India. He has been a sensation in the shortest format for the Men in Blue. He has taken to the format like a duck to water. The right-handed batter has got three hundreds for India and has been a proven performer on the international stage since he made his T20 international debut in 2021 at the age of 30.

Suryakumar played a measured innings of an unbeaten 26 off 31 balls, with one four, which is unlike what we have seen off him in the T20I format. But he played according to the game situation and helped India beat New Zealand by six wickets in a tense contest. When asked about his cool and calm demeanour on challenging surfaces, he was quick to give credit to format India captain MS Dhoni.

We have to grind it out in domestic cricket – Suryakumar Yadav

“T20 series started in Ranchi so maybe that calm attitude came from there. But I guess a lot of domestic cricket which I played before making my international debut, that has helped me a lot. Because of the grind that we have there, we play on challenging tracks and you have to apply yourselves, so whatever I have learned there I have carried it here. Rest whatever I have learned is by watching the senior players and talking to them about how they tackle various difficult situations,” Suryakumar said.

In the second T20I, a good show by the India bowlers on a tacky Lucknow wicket helped India restrict the Kiwis to 99-8 in their 20 overs. Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Hooda, and Kuldeep Yadav all picked up a wicket each in their respective spells. Arshdeep Singh picked up 2-7 in his two overs in what was a good redemption game for him after his lacklustre performance at Ranchi.

In reply, the black caps spinners were able to extract enough assistance from the pitch at Lucknow and made India sweat and earn every run in a chase, which was not going to be easy. In the end, India got there off the penultimate ball of the 20th over. Suryakumar was unbeaten out in the middle, along with Hardik Pandya, who scored 15 off 20 balls with one four.