Cricket News

‘I’m of the opinion that his best batting position is at number four’ – Saba Karim on Suryakumar Yadav’s batting spot for the 20-20 World Cup

With the 20- 20 World Cup round the corner later this year in Australia, Men in Blue are gearing up for the tournament. The team captained by Rohit Sharma and coached by Rahul Dravid would like to arrive at the best team combination they would want to play in the tournament.

The experienced players in the team like Virat Kohli and KL Rahul have been on the sidelines taking rest and injuries. However, Rahul is back in the fray and so with the enormous depth in the talent pool for India, assigning each batter a specific role for World Cup becomes important.

India preferred Suryakumar Yadav, along with Rohit Sharma, in the recent series against West Indies. He played brilliant knocks in the T20I series, but with Rahul and Kohli back in the team, Suryakumar might be pushed down the order and that seems to be the ideal move at present.

 Saba Karim and Ricky Ponting had also showered praises on the Mumbai batter. Karim stated that the position is suitable for Suryakumar as he is strong against spinners as well as pacers.

“I’m of the opinion that his best batting position is at number four, particularly when facing a high-calibre bowling attack. When competing in ICC competitions, batting at number four is a highly vital position; thus, you need a guy like Suryakumar there. He is equally effective against pacers and spinners and has a good strike rate,” Saba Karim had told India News Sports.

 “For Surya, it’s one, two, or four. I think he can open, but I think he’s probably, you know if you could probably just keep him away from the new ball, let him control the middle part of the game outside the Powerplay, through in the middle, and if he’s in at the end, you know what can happen,” Ponting had said on an episode of ICC review.

 Suryakumar Yadav seems to be a good choice at number four. Also, his batting at number four will allow other batters to play in their favoured role. While batting at four, Suryakumar has scored 262 T20I runs from nine innings at 32.75 and a massive strike rate of 184.50.

Further, 2022 has been a cracking year for him in T20Is scoring 428 runs from 12 innings at 38.90 and an impressive scoring rate of 189.38. The Indian T20 League was also a brilliant campaign for the Mumbai-based batter this year who notched up 303 runs from eight matches at an average of 43.29 with a strike rate of 145.67. Suryakumar has been in good form and so he can have the most impact on the Indian batting lineup when they will aim for the World Cup.