What makes Suryakumar Yadav the ideal T20 batter?

The pandemic has made a lot of us lose track of time, but here’s a staggering fact that is almost inconceivable: this time last year, Suryakumar Yadav was an uncapped player who’d never donned the Indian colours. 

It is a fact that’s hard to process, because such is the impact Suryakumar has already had at the international level. 

In 12 innings in T20 Internationals, the flamboyant right-hander has bagged the Player of the Match award thrice, crossed the fifty-run mark four times and has firmly established himself as the nucleus of the middle order despite constantly being moved up and down the order. It won’t even be a hyperbole to say that, presently, SKY is India’s most important player heading into the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year, as the Men in Blue look to end their nine-year trophy drought.

The world hasn’t stopped raving about Suryakumar’s batting since his sensational IPL 2020 season, but what makes SKY the almost-perfect T20 batsman? Let’s decode.

The versatility to bat and excel anywhere

When quizzed about his preferred batting position, following his match-winning 34*(18) in the first T20I against West Indies, this is what Suryakumar had to say: “I like batting anywhere, I'm flexible to bat at any position.”

It is a statement coated with truth as in his 12-year T20 career, the right-hander has shown that he has the preternatural ability to equally impact games regardless of where he bats.

Suryakumar, in T20s, has predominantly batted at No.3, which is where he made the world take notice of him through a splendid IPL campaign in 2020. But his ability to be a match-winner has transcended batting positions.

In his short T20I career, Suryakumar has batted in three different positions in the middle-order (No.3, No.4, No.5) and has excelled everywhere, seamlessly adjusting to the needs and demands of each position.

But he’s also proven himself to be an able opener and finisher too. 

In his 512-run IPL 2018 campaign, SKY opened the batting 12 times and amassed 441 runs at an average of 36.75. 

Four seasons prior to that when he was with KKR, SKY was the Gambhir-led side’s designated finisher and he delivered big time, averaging 38.67 while striking at 170.6 batting at No.7. 

For both Mumbai and KKR, he also batted at 4, 5 and 6 in the middle-order at different points.

With time he’s evolved, getting a perfect understanding of what each position requires, and it is this versatility that’s been key to him becoming the heartbeat of India’s middle-order. The management have full faith in him delivering the goods, notwithstanding where he bats.

The ultimate counter-attacker 

There is nothing more valuable in T20s than a batsman capable of instantly transferring pressure back into the bowling side after a fall of a wicket. It deflates opposition captains, who generally are of the thought that they could slide in a cheap couple of overs during the ‘rebuilding’ phase in which the scoring rate usually drops.

With his uncanny ability to start quick, Suryakumar makes life hell for bowling sides.

Since September 2020, among No.3 and No.4 batters, only Nicholas Pooran (144.5) has scored quicker in the first 8 balls than Suryakumar (132.2).  However, in this time period, no batter in the world has struck a boundary as frequently as SKY (once 4.8 balls) in the first 8 balls of their innings. 

He brought this ability, which was a hallmark of his IPL 2020 campaign, to the fore the very first time he batted in international cricket, against England. 

At 21/0 after 3.3 overs, India were off to a pretty slow start, and the wicket of Rohit Sharma on the fourth ball of the over made it seem like a mini rebuilding phase was inevitable. 

Suryakumar, though, flipped the script entirely by smacking a six off his very first ball. Yes, it was that hook he played off Jofra Archer. In the blink of an eye he was on 16* off 9, meaning England were not able to get the control they were looking for.

In the last T20I he played against Windies, too, India had slowed down when SKY walked in to bat, having scored just 23 off the 21 balls prior. To make matters worse, they’d also lost 3 wickets.

But unfazed by the situation, Suryakumar struck two sixes off his first 8 balls to inject momentum back into the innings and get the team going. 

This ability of Suryakumar to counter-attack, coupled with his versatility, makes him a man for all situations. Captains are comfortable sending him to bat regardless of if the score is 12/3, 60/2 or 150/1. 

A batsman for all phases and all bowling types 

Virat Kohli is a world-class accumulator that can cause destruction in the powerplay and at the death, but he is a liability in the middle-overs against spin. Glenn Maxwell is an excellent spin-basher, but he can be tied down by employing express pace. A Mohammad Rizwan is adept against all types of bowling, but usually takes time to set-up his innings and get going.

Suryakumar Yadav, however, is a batsman for all phases and all bowling types, with no noticeable shortcoming.

Since September 2020, Suryakumar has been equally impactful and effective in all phases, with his strike rate being a clear stand-out. 

That he’s been able to rack up numbers like these is purely due to his proficiency against every bowling type. He pretty much has an answer for everything opposition captains tend to throw at him.

The only relative struggle has been against left-arm spinners, but, thus far, it hasn’t been a weakness noticeable enough to hinder his game.

What makes Suryakumar an indispensable asset in this Indian line-up is his ability to handle spin in the middle overs. Since SKY’s T20I debut, he’s averaged 43 and has struck at nearly 170 against the spinners in overs 7-15. No other batter has come close to putting up such figures in this period.

The ability to access all areas in the field

Even the most destructive of batters, at times, are tamed when bowling sides execute their plans to perfection by bowling lines and lengths that make the player uncomfortable.  

A part of what makes Suryakumar Yadav an extremely difficult batsman to bowl to is his ability to access all areas in the field, due to the range of strokes he possesses.

Above is the wagon-wheel for all the runs scored by Suryakumar in T20 cricket since the start of IPL 2020 - remarkably, his runs have been equally distributed all over the ground.

This is a byproduct of the extent of strokes he has in his arsenal. 

The flick off the pads, the cover drive and the inside-out hit have been Suryakumar’s most productive strokes in the past 18 months, while the conventional technique allows him to access areas down the ground. 

Crucially he possesses a very strong back-foot game, both through the on and off side, meaning teams do not target him by bowling short. The 360° strokes behind square are merely the icing on the cake. 

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For the past year India have been spoilt by the presence of Suryakumar Yadav in the middle-order, and the team, in many ways, has been lucky to have at its disposal a player who is currently in the midst of one of the most remarkable peaks of all time.

How long Suryakumar Yadav can keep this mind-boggling run up remains to be seen, but this ongoing purple patch of his has provided fans the privilege of witnessing a T20 batter that is close to perfection.