A lot rides on Suryakumar Yadav if India are to do well in the T20 World Cup in Australia starting next month. As the recently-concluded Asia Cup and the West Indies series preceding it showed, Yadav can be the engine that drives the Indian innings. His recent form in T20Is has also been impressive.
His ability to get going from the first ball and execute shots all around the park have made him a standout in India’s current white-ball unit.
A lot rides on Suryakumar Yadav if India are to do well in the T20 World Cup in Australia starting next month. As the recently-concluded Asia Cup and the West Indies series preceding it showed, Yadav can be the engine that drives the Indian innings. His recent form in T20Is has also been impressive.
His ability to get going from the first ball and execute shots all around the park have made him a standout in India’s current white-ball unit.
The 32-year-old from Mumbai, however, will be eager to leave his mark in a big-ticket global tournament, something he is yet to do and the T20 World Cup provides him with the ideal opportunity to do that.
Excerpts from an interview:
Can you tell us about your change in mindset to a fearless cricketer, being a player who comes out and plays his shots straight away...
The mindset has always been the same since I started playing, it just got a good direction to it. Nothing has changed. I always enjoy it (fearless approach). When I made my debut for Mumbai as well, the only thing which came to my mind was attack. At that time also, I used to feel attack is the best defence. So, it kept building from that and slowly when I came into this set-up, I realised what my game was, how I can be a little different which can help my team from unreal situations, and I wanted to be a little different. I wanted to be batting in difficult situations and I wanted to be that factor a team is always looking for.
Overall, how important it is to be fearless?
What is important for me is that you got to be very clear in your mind, you can’t have a double thought before expressing yourself in this format because by the time you blink your eye this game gets over. I always like to be very clear: when I am trying to execute a few things on the ground against any team I just do that. Even in the case, I fail to do it I don’t think too much. I am very clear that I made my plans, if it didn’t work, no problem, but I never have a double thought. I don’t think, arre.. if I had done this, the outcome would have been different. Never!
Do you feel it is necessary to be a 360-degree player in T20s or does every batter need to have his own way of what works for him?
I feel it completely depends on the batter. For example, if someone is not playing all around the park and still scoring 70 off 35 balls, you don’t need to be playing 360 degrees all the time. What I feel is if you can do it, why not! But if you can't do it and are still winning games for your team, scoring at a healthy strike rate then I feel you can be yourself and continue the same way.
But, you have a big advantage with your array of shots...
Absolutely, I feel really happy when it comes out as I have planned. Having a lot of scoring options can be good, but sometimes it can confuse also... which stroke you want to play on this ball. But I am really happy with the way things are going.
How do you counter situations when you have a fielder placed for a particular shot, will you go for it or will you change your game?
Absolutely, I will go for it if I can play that stroke regularly and have to beat just one fielder over there. So I actually don’t see a fielder there, I back myself and just go with it. If I am succeeding seven times out of 10 then why not take a positive route.
You have said that you are fine with batting at any position but where do you feel you can be most expressive?
I love batting at all positions, but what I have started enjoying more is taking up challenges. No 4 is a nice challenging position to bat on because from over number 7 to 14, you see different bowlers, spinners, fast bowlers, slow medium pacers bowl in that situation. It is the time when other teams control the game. I love keeping the tempo up in that situation as well because if you score then it becomes easier for the finishers to come and express themselves. They don’t have to build again.
How do you plan to approach the upcoming World Cup?
There is still time for the World Cup, before that there are two series coming against Australia and South Africa, really looking forward to them. Because I haven’t played T20 series against both teams. It will be a good tournament before the World Cup. I have never been to Australia, so really excited about that as well. Importantly, I love batting on fast and bouncy tracks, so the preparations are going on for that.
The sweep shot is a rewarding shot for you but risky on bouncy tracks, you will have the challenge of countering bounce in Australia...
It will be a good challenge, sweep will not be the only option, there will be other areas where you can get a lot of runs. Let me find what bullets I have in my gun.
What is the ideal T20 innings for you? Like in the Asia Cup for Sri Lanka together it was coming off as unit 20s, 30s all adding up to a good score.
You can be helping the team with a 10-ball 20 or 7-ball 15, you don’t need to be always scoring a 45-ball 70. Any contribution you do for the team as per the situation is more than enough. For me, even a one-ball six or a two-ball seven runs equally good as a 40-ball 70 because that is what is required in that situation.
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