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Surya: From Mumbai problem child to India T20 leader
Mumbai spinner Shams Mulani draws inspiration from Suryakumar Yadav's late but successful national team debut after years of hard work and dedication.
MUMBAI: For Shams Mulani, it has been a grind in his quest to get into national reckoning. Season after season the left-arm spinner has taken wickets aplenty in Ranji Trophy – 180 wickets in 38 first-class matches, 82 scalps in 55 List A games and 52 in 45 T20s. The 27-year-old is waiting for his big chance. If he is not losing hope, the inspiration is right there in the dressing rooms of Mumbai, his club team, Parsee Gymkhana, and IPL team Mumbai Indians – Suryakumar Yadav.
Mulani has seen the effort Surya had to put to break into the Indian squad before finally getting his India cap at the age of 30. Surya’s prodigious batting talent was obvious to everyone from his junior days. As an 18-year-old, he made 73 on Ranji debut in 2010, and the following season scored 754 from nine games. But he had to toil for almost 12 years before getting to make his India debut in March, 2021.
“He has been right in front of my eyes. I take that as an inspiration – a guy who is the No.1 T20 batter, has played a crucial part in India’s World Cup victory. He got his India debut very late, but that’s the inspiration we all have as Mumbai players trying to break through and get into the national team. Quite a few from Mumbai have been getting chances like Tushar Deshpande (at 29); it’s Surya whom we look up to. The struggle and grind is very important, when you play international cricket after that, it is the sweetest thing,” says Mulani, who was the highest Ranji wicket-taker in 2021-22, second highest in 2022-23 and had another impressive haul of 35 last season.
Surya got his break late, but his rise in the three years hence has been rapid and this week he was named the T20I skipper. His Mumbai teammates are dazzled. “Somehow, no one (at that time) thought he would become this big. He has great game sense and that’s the main reason he has been given the captaincy. I used to listen to him talk about the game, how he was going to play around with the bowlers. I would pick key things from him. Being a left-arm spinner, it really helped me get ahead of the batters,” adds Mulani.
Those who have seen him since his early days with Mumbai find the transformation in his personality remarkable. In cricket perception matters a lot. Confidence can be construed as cockiness and the player branded as one with an attitude problem. Surya had to deal with it.
He had a tough time winning over the Mumbai dressing room after being appointed captain in 2014-15 and gave it away through an underwhelming season. In 2017, Surya was pulled up by the state association for retweeting a post that questioned his omission from the team for the inter-state T20 tournament. Vinayak Mane, his captain at Parsee Gymkhana in his early days and now the club’s coach, remembers an early conversation when he was asked to take Surya under his wing in the club.
“Mak sir (cricket columnist and consultant Makarand Waingankar) has always been in touch with him. He was the one who put him on to us. I was captain but about to enter coaching. I remember his words: “Vinayak you will have to handle such characters if you want to be a successful coach.” Sir was clear: “If anything goes up and down, I will make sure, I will take him out”,” recollects Mane, a former Mumbai opener.
“To be honest, it was a tough phase for him. He was looking for club cricket opportunities and not many clubs (the big ones) were keen to play him, not because of his cricket but because he was a strong character. He was known to be very dominant on the field and people were not able to handle him. Luckily for him, and us, he was a good addition. That (Parsee Gymkhana) dressing room has helped him change overall, I feel. We maintained a very relaxed atmosphere – play and quietly go home.”
Everyone talks about Surya’s fielding, especially after that brilliant catch in the World Cup final, but he has put in a lot of extra work. Parsee Gymkhana cricket secretary Khodadad Yazdegardi recalls how then Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne was pointing out Surya’s weak fielding skills at the start of his career.
“Surya was match fit, but not as fit as he is now. Zubin Bharucha (RR’s head of High Performance Centre) wanted to take him to RR for trials. But whenever the ball went to him, Warne would turn around with hand on hips and look at Zubin as if to say I have got this guy. Zubin told me this boy has something in him, but RR management didn’t agree and he was let go. Then he was picked by MI, and later went to KKR,” recalls Yazdegardi. “Now he’s become fitter and his fielding is world class.”
Surya owes a lot to Yazdegardi for backing him. During his tough time in Mumbai cricket, he stood firmly by him, ensuring justice was done to his talent every time he came under fire.
“He was getting frustrated that despite getting runs he was not being picked for India. He was just asking me, “where am I going wrong?” Also, every time Mumbai lost, the blame used to somewhat come on him, when he was not even involved in anything (off the field stuff), all that rubbish used to go on. I told him, keep on scoring runs, the time will come, you will break the door. He has attitude, but good attitude; he lifts the intensity on the field,” says Khodadad. “The main thing was we had that rapport. He never doubted me or Mane.”
Surya was reinstated as Mumbai captain in 2019 and Mulani picked his first 10-wicket match haul in Ranji against Baroda, in the season’s first game.
Coach Mane says Surya is ready for India captaincy. “Tactically, I was sure he would tick all the boxes. That I felt when he was first captain of Mumbai also. Only the man management skill was missing at that time, which is a very difficult thing. That part he has added. The change in personality is going to work for him, his tactical acumen built over the years will stand out,” says Mane.
For his childhood coach Ashok Aswalkar at the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) ground, Anushakti Nagar is happy his parents let him to pursue cricket despite the strong academics culture in a campus full of scientists.
“In our colony, the culture was that after 8th-9th standard, children would leave all sports and get into academics, to become doctors, engineers and scientists. I am thankful to his parents for taking this decision. Surya has shown everyone what talent he has.”
