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How once bad-tempered Suryakumar Yadav became T20 World Cup-winning captain in a surreal transformation
His extraordinary journey is totally movie material. The T20 World Cup on Sunday night was the end result of a transformation that started many years ago.
For the last couple of years, after being made India's T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav has come across as funny. His batting performance has dipped, which is understandable. As a captain, your responsibilities grow manifold, and your own batting goes down the priority list. It's a phenomenon many cricketers experience after being promoted to captaincy.
It won't be an exaggeration to say he has been the Jim Carrey of the Indian team. He makes those funny faces when someone bowls well or someone hits a wonderful shot. Basically, he has a funny expression for all cricketing happenings on the field of play.
But through all this, his leadership has also shone through. As a leader, he has improved by the day. Take the T20 World Cup final example, when Shivam Dube dropped an easy catch from the bat of the dangerous Finn Allen early in the Black Caps' chase, he was sympathetic. Not happy but he understood.
When Ishan Kishan took a catch but had touched the rope with his feet, he was quick to suggest through his gestures to Kishan that ‘it's okay, mate, you did your best’. Very rarely has one seen Suryakumar blowing his fuse. He did once with Arshadeep Singh during India’s tour of Australia last year when the medium pacer wasn’t bowling as per plan. As I said before, he is not given to getting angry in full public view.
And this was the guy who was once removed from domestic side Mumbai's captaincy for largely being temperamental. Some players in the side had actually complained against him. In that light, his turnaround is nothing short of extraordinary.
Late Bloomer, but what a bloom!
Even as a cricketer, he made his India debut quite late. He was 30 when he played his first T20I. Yes, he had made some impression during his Kolkata Knight Riders days, like he was good with ramp shots, but that was all.
His body language suggested he wasn't in for a long innings. He didn't look ambitious at all. The way he chewed his chewing gum on the way back to the dug-out gave the impression he wasn’t too bothered. Then the controversies in Mumbai cricket came to light, and Suryakumar was at the centre of them. He appeared to have completely faded at that point.
But a shock revival happened. Those controversies around him eventually died down, and he joined the IPL powerhouse Mumbai Indians. In those troubled years,Suryakumar had lain low and worked on his game. When he showed the improvement in Mumbai Indians' colours, the cricketing world was stunned. He had become a bastman par excellence. And everyone knew it was a matter of time before an India call-up came his way.
With Suryakumar, fans have experienced a gamut of emotions, and on Sunday night when he lifted the T20 World Cup trophy following a massive win over New Zealand, it was a moment that looked completely surreal. Who would have thought that Suryakumar would come this far?
