Follow UsIf Indian cricket needs to be grateful to one cricketer for showing the template of how T20 cricket should be played, it has to be Suryakumar Yadav, for the No.4 batter has changed the entire course of the game by simply being himself.
His knock on Friday against a rampant Gujarat Titans made headlines for all the right reasons as Mumbai Indians, riding on the back of his century, managed to secure the second spot on the points table. While Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya shared their admiration for the knock, the man himself underlined his insane amount of practice as the reason behind the special performance.
"There is lots and lots of practice before the game - what I practice and how I practice. That is most important. When I come into the game, I am very clear, and I just go out and express myself. That's it,” Suryakumar Yadav said in the post-match presentation.
Mumbai Indians batted first, knowing that Gujarat Titans are one of the best, if not the best, chasing sides in the world at the moment. However, knowing Wankhede Stadium inside out helped his cause.
"There was a lot of dew on the ground, it was there from the seventh-eighth over, and I knew what my shots were on the ground," Suryakumar said after Mumbai Indians' 27-run win.
"I knew that one side of the boundary is 75-80 metres. So I was prepared to hit two shots in that over - scooping one over the third man and flicking one over square leg. I was not thinking about hitting straight. I have played that shot before, and I just backed myself and was really happy with how it went over the third man,” Yadav added.