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Suryakumar Yadav identifies 'turning point' as Rahul Dravid recalls hilarious NCA incident
Suryakumar Yadav seems to have picked up where he left off last year in T20 internationals as he blazed a 45-ball century in the third T20I against Sri Lanka.
Suryakumar Yadav became just the second Indian player to score three T20I centuries on Saturday, leading to him not just being called the best batter in the world in the shortest format but even among the greatest of all time. Suryakumar's career numbers now stand at 1578 runs scored in 43 innings at a strike rate of a whopping 180.34.
While he is among the first names in the team sheet in T20Is today, it wasn't too long ago that Suryakumar was almost perennially stuck on the fringes of the Indian team. Head coach Rahul Dravid had seen a lot of him during his time as coach of the India A and age group teams and as head of the NCA and he recalled a hilarious incident to compare what Suryakumar's fitness used to be “two years ago”.
“I know that your wife travels with you a lot,” said Dravid in a video chat with Suryakumar on BCCI.tv. “I know she has pushed you a lot on the fitness side of things. The fitness work and diet that you've done, something that is very noticeable for me as a coach is just the (change in) lifestyle, having seen you a little bit in India A and when you came to the NCA and did the yo-yo test two years ago and dived to cross the line,” said Dravid as both him and Suryakumar broke out laughing.
Suryakumar said that the yo-yo test Dravid mentioned is in fact something that he sees as a turning point. “My family has played the most important role in my cricket journey. When I started playing I know that they were the ones who helped me get out of the box. My dad is an engineer, there was no history of sports in my family. I had to be a little different for him to see a spark in me and then he pushed me. They have sacrificed a lot,” he said.
“My wife. After marriage she has been pushing me really hard. In terms of nutrition and staying fit. The fitness test in Bangalore I still remember. That was the actually the turning point. I really enjoyed that and we have been talking cricket a lot. We discuss how I can be better and we really enjoy doing that,” said Suryakumar.
