‘No one ever thought Suryakumar Yadav will be an impact player’: Kapil Dev's stunning comment

Legendary India cricketer Kapil Dev said very few thought Suryakumar Yadav will develop into an impact player like this but currently, an Indian team without him is 'unthinkable'.

There's no doubt about the fact that Suryakumar Yadav has risen to be one of India's most prolific batters in white-ball cricket. In the last 12 months or so, he has done some unthinkable stuff with the bat in hand in T20Is that includes scoring at a strike rate of over 175 while batting at No.4 in the middle overs, during which run-scoring is the hardest in the shortest format of the game. He has scored a breathtaking century, albeit in a losing cause against England and has shattered the record of most runs by an Indian in a calendar year with more than three months left in 2022.

India's Suryakumar Yadav in action during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 Group 2 match between India and Pakistan (ANI)

More than the runs, which he has scored a lot this year, to be honest, it's the manner in which SKY, as Suryakumar Yadav is popularly known as, scores them is what makes him special. Take the India vs Pakistan T20 World Cup match in Melbourne on Sunday for example. He didn't score a lot of runs, nor did he leave a telling impact on the outcome of the thrilling match that India won in the last ball but Suryakumar Yadav was the only batter who didn't seem to be in any sort of discomfort at any point in his brief stay in the middle and also got off the blocks straight away.

The MCG pitch offered a lot to the fast bowlers. The Indian seamers used the moisture on the surface to swing the ball and when it dried out, the Pakistan's fast bowlers, who are a lot quicker than their Indian counterparts, bent their back to extract steep bounce from the good length.

Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli all seem to take a lot of time adjusting to the pace and bounce of the wicket early on but Suryakumar Yadav, walking into the middle at 10 for 2 in the fourth over, hit his first ball straight back past Haris Rauf, perhaps the quickest bowler of the night, to get off the mark with a boundary. The next ball was punched sqaure through the off side for three runs.

Rauf pulled his length back slightly and increased his pace in the next over but Suryakumar was too good. He pulled it with disdain to collect his second boundary. A ball later, he was dismissed as Rauf got one to bounce off length and cramped him for room but Suryakumar's 15 off 10 balls was a treat to the eye.

Legendary India cricketer Kapil Dev said very few thought Suryakumar Yadav will develop into an impact player like this but currently, an Indian team without him is 'unthinkable'.

“In fact, no one ever thought about Yadav being an impact player in the future, but he did great with his batting and forced the world to talk about him. Now, we can’t think about India without him. Having a batter like Suryakumar in the team in the company of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, a team automatically becomes strong,” Kapil said on the sidelines of a promotional event.

SKY will be looking for a big score when India face the Netherlands in their next Super 12 match at Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday.