Suryakumar expands his range in new batting role
Find ball 9.3 of India’s innings in the third T20I against West Indies and play it over and over again to somewhat read Suryakumar Yadav’s mind. Rarely do you see a present day batter hold his pose in the follow-through of a gratifying stroke. A perfect straight drive in Tests, perhaps? Or may be a full-blooded hoick over mid-on? Yadav hit neither but it still was the money shot of the match.
It wasn’t exactly a bad delivery. Alzarri Joseph dug in a ball that was rising from an awkward length and was probably best pulled towards midwicket or maybe steered down third man. Yadav took the third, more outrageous option—lifting it though the line over mid-off, off the frontfoot. It was all timing and very little power apart from the swift backlift, enough to send the ball over the rope. Supremely confident of his skills, Yadav held aloft his bat just to rub it in. Further proof of the clarity of mind with which Yadav bats nowadays came two balls later when he dropped to his knees, arched back and ramped Joseph’s back of the length delivery over slip for a boundary.
Yet Yadav was nowhere close to batting in a slapdash manner. India’s record in T20I chases (18 wins and two defeats) since July, 2019 was encouraging but the target (165) was tricky and Rohit Sharma retired hurt early after pulling a back muscle. Yadav ensured there wasn’t any panic.
Yadav isn’t India’s first-choice opener. He is likely to give up that position to KL Rahul once he recovers. But Yadav’s USP is scoring wherever he is sent. Having already established himself as a dependable No 4 in ODIs, Yadav has now scored at least one fifty till No 5 in T20Is, all in the past one year.
Where Yadav has probably improved more than any other contemporary batter is in his range—he now has a shot for almost every ball. If left-arm pacer Obed McCoy made the ball leave Yadav he would walk across and cut down the angle before driving it towards mid-on.
The same ball next over was deftly sliced between slip and short third man. Be it in slashing Joseph over the slip cordon for a six, shuffling across the stumps to slice-drive Dominic Drakes over point for four or clearing his front leg to clobber Jason Holder over a fielder at mid-on for four, Yadav refused to be restrained by the lines.
Not only did it send West Indies into a tizzy, it also took the focus off Shreyas Iyer, who has a pronounced weakness against shortpitched bowling. Iyer finished with a strike rate of less than 100 but Yadav was effortless in his innings, steering India through the difficult overs. When more and more teams are lured into going after the bowlers even at the peril of quick dismissals, Yadav was a calming reminder of the advantage of a converter.
“Once you get a start in this format, it’s always important to convert that because it does well for the team. Of course, the thirties and forties for any player look good, but I think when you get past 70-80 and then go on to get a hundred as well… then you’re scoring those runs for the team. I thought Surya batted brilliantly, (he had) a good partnership there with Iyer and it was quite clinical,” said Sharma.
Of course, what tied all this together was Yadav’s strike rate of 172.72. He was the anchor alright, but he didn’t slow down the chase.