Suryakumar Yadav played a memorable 31-ball knock of 57 in his first ever innings for India, which eventually helped the team in registering an eight-run win against England in the fourth T20I of the ongoing five-match series in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
India were at 15/1 when Suryakumar walked out to bat and he hit the very first ball he faced from Jofra Archer for a six over the fine leg boundary. The 30-year-old approached his entire innings pretty much in the same manner as he kept scoring runs at a brisk rate.
His fearless and attacking approach was pretty refreshing to watch considering that he was playing his first ever innings for India. Suryakumar said after the match that it is the freedom given by the team management and captain Virat Kohli that helped him to approach his innings in a carefree manner.
“The team management and Virat-bhai asked me to keep it simple, express myself and do what I have been doing in the IPL all along,” said Suraykumar Yadav at the post-match presentation.
“Really happy with the way things went. I have always dreamt of playing for India and winning games for the team. Just trying to be myself inside, I keep talking to myself and keep things very simple. I don’t try to complicate things,” he added.
Suryakumar made his debut in the second T20I of this series but didn’t get a chance to bat in that match. He was dropped for the third match in order to make room for Rohit Sharma but he was drafted back into the XI once again for the fourth match.
He has been knocking on the doors of the Indian team for several years now. Suryakumar has been in sensational form across all formats in domestic cricket and has been a vital cog of Mumbai Indians’ batting unit in the IPL as well.
The 30-year-old has amassed 1416 runs for MI in the last three IPL seasons. 480 of those runs came in IPL 2020, at an excellent average of 40 and an equally good strike-rate of 145.01. He went past the fifty-run mark a total of four times last season and had a best score of 79* to his name.
