Suryakumar Yadav should play in all three formats: Raina

Suryakumar Yadav was named as the best T20I player of the year 2022, and it came as no surprise, with the way the right-hander absolutely dominated proceedings in the shortest format. But when it has come to the other white-ball format – ODIs – the Mumbaikar has had a trouble or two. 

That certainly doesn’t leave the Indian management perturbed, given they all back the right-hander’s talent. Former Indian all-rounder Suresh Raina is of the same school of thought. Raina insisted that the 32-year-old should be playing all the three formats for the country before adding that his fearless approach could make a vital difference to this Indian setup.

“The way he (Suryakumar) is performing, I think he should play in all three formats and without him, all three formats should not even exist. The way he performed, the way he shows intent, the way he plans different shots, he also plays fearlessly and knows how to use the dimension of the ground,” Raina told Aakash Chopra in an interaction on Viacom 18 Sports.

While the 32-year-old might not have taken ODI cricket by storm, there presents an interesting opportunity for him in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia with Shreyas Iyer still injured. If given a cap, it would be interesting to see how the Mumbai-man goes about things, having scored over 5000 First-Class runs with a steady strike-rate of 63.56.

Raina believes that if selected for the longest format, Suryakumar has the opportunity to score multiple 100s and double-hundreds. 

“He is a Mumbai player, and he knows how to play red-ball cricket. I think he has a great chance – playing Test cricket will get him another establishment in ODIs and some stability as well. He will score multiple 100s and then 200s,” he added.