OPINION
Follow Us“Remember the name….SKY!,” tweeted a possibly elated Gautam Gambhir. “Speechless by that knock and some of the shots, unbelievable,” said the Player of the Match, Reece Topley.
Suryakumar Yadav is just 18 T20Is old.
41 runs were required off two overs, Suryakumar was on strike. Even the atheists had turned their television on to deny the existence of a god. Up against the right-hander was Moeen Ali, a match-up that was right in the Mumbaikar’s alley. Even the experience of Ali faltered under the pressure, conceding 16 runs off just three balls.
24 runs were still needed off eight deliveries and the Indian hopes were still strong. But when the right-hander tried to clear the boundary, all he could was find the fielder. There was pin-drop silence at the ground. Virat Kohli and co were already up on their feet. Even though India lost the battle, they won the bigger one right before the global event in Australia.
It was one run short of the highest score by an Indian batter in the shortest format but more than that, it was an innings of a lifetime. Against England at their own backyard, at 31/3, with India needing 185 runs in the last 15 overs, it needed a miracle.
Suryakumar was that miracle, almost.
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Earlier in Southampton, India played a brand of white-ball cricket that England are very familiar with. But even when they are familiar with that aggressive brand of cricket, they had no answer to it. At a phase where India have struggled in the past, they turned a new page over the last year – the middle-overs.
Throughout the series, India have scored 261 runs off 162 deliveries. India did not play a brand of cricket that they had played for the longest time possible. But in England, the new page showed what makes India dangerous, the relentless aggression. During the same phase of play, India struck at 161.1, while the hosts only scored at 156.2.
India scored a boundary ever 4.9 deliveries, having an 82.1% control during the middle-over phase, which has transformed India’s success in the shortest format, playing just 28% dot-balls. One of the chief architects for that transformation has been Suryakumar.
Since his debut in 2021, no player from the top ten sides have scored at a quicker pace than the Indian No.4. In fact, Suryakumar strikes at 159 in his first ten balls, more than Liam Livingstone’s 157.6. Alongside that, the right-hander also averages 33, showing consistency. While India have had batters, who can accumulate the runs, they haven’t quite had a player who can burst away like the right-hander.
The evolution of T20 cricket is such that the batters have to constantly upgrade themselves and the 31-year-old has not just upgraded himself but also transformed the scene on the Indian T20 scene. Suryakumar’s ability to pierce certain gaps, access the areas of field that are not quite accessible is what sets him apart. In the areas behind the wickets, the right-hander scored 97 runs off just 40 balls, accessing areas that are not quite expected usually.
Be it getting past Jos Buttler or picking the gap behind the point region, Suryakumar’s knock perhaps had the most ludicrous choice of shots.
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“Just got done with the BCCI Awards in Chennai, some exciting cricketers coming up.. Suryakumar Yadav from Mumbai to watch out for in future!,” tweeted Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma back on December 10, 2011.
11 years after the tweet, Suryakumar showed a version of himself that could very well cement the future of Indian middle-order in white-ball cricket. In the 16 innings he has walked out to bat, he has looked a million dollar. He has perhaps answered one of India’s longest-standing worries in limited-overs cricket, the No.4 position.
On Sunday, that was exactly that. At 31/3, India were in all sorts of trouble but the way this team has been setup, they did not quite stop attacking. Suryakumar was at the helm of things. While he only scored seven runs off the first ten balls, he got away after that. Over the next ten balls, he scored 23 and then 18 before striking 69 runs off his last 25 deliveries.
India lost by 17 runs but there wasn’t one regret that India lost. The regret all over the country was that Suryakumar ended up on the losing side. It was an innings that would go down as perhaps the best in a losing cause in T20Is. More importantly, it was an innings that gives India plenty of hope. Hope that they could bat at a certain fashion that is considered normal in T20Is.
Whether it happens at the cost of Virat Kohli or not, Suryakumar is here to stay and rule the Indian cricket in white-ball format in the middle-order.
