Suryakumar Yadav may be a late bloomer -having made his India debut at the age of 30 in March 2021. But the Mumbai batter ensured that he gave the fans memories of a lifetime in the short span of his career already, which has led many to hail Suryakumar Yadav as one of the greatest T20I batters ever.
And why not: since the day he skipped out in Ahemdabad and whacked Jofra Archer for a first-ball six in international cricket on March 14, 2021, no batsman has scored more than Suryakumar Yadav’s 1578 at a better strike rate than his 180. His average of 46 and strike rate of 180 is surreal- a dream for perhaps any other batter playing T20 cricket at the top level.
In 45 T20Is, Suryakumar Yadav has blasted 3 centuries and 13 half-centuries. Only Rohit Sharma has more T20I tons – 4 – but that too in almost 100 more innings than Suryakumar Yadav.
With his incredible range-hitting, exquisite strokeplay, immaculate timing, and much-vaunted intent, Suryakumar Yadav has gained legions of fans. One among those fans is also Virat Kohli, arguably the greatest T20I and all-format batsman and the current leading run-scorer in T20Is.
Kohli has seen many of Suryakumar Yadav’s best knocks from the non-striker’s end, or from the dressing room. He has also often in the past few months lavished high praises on Suryakumar Yadav.
Here are Virat Kohli’s 5 best reactions on Suryakumar Yadav:
Numero Uno
This remark from Kohli came on Twitter after Suryakumar Yadav notched up his second T20I century, in New Zealand, a score of 111* from only 51 balls in Mount Maunganui, where no other Indian batter could score over 36, and only one Kiwi batsmen – Williamson – scored over 40, that too at a pedestrain rate. Suryakumar propelled India’s score from 108 in the 13th over to 190 at the start of the 20th over.
Kohli was rested from this tour, but the former skipper made sure to express his feeling about this sensational knock from the Number 1 ranked ICC T20I batsman in the world.
“Numero Uno showing why he’s the best in the world. Didn’t watch it live but I’m sure this was another video game innings by him,” Kohli tweeted.
Numero Uno showing why he’s the best in the world. Didn’t watch it live but I’m sure this was another video game innings by him. 😂 @surya_14kumar
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) November 20, 2022
After century vs Sri Lanka
While Hasaranga and Theeshana are two of the most successful T20 spinners in the world, and ones who batters want to play out safely, Suryakumar treated them with disdain en route raising his 3rd T20I century, in Rajkot recently.
After Suryakumar belted 112* in 51 deliveries, with the help of 7 fours and 9 sixes, Kohli took to his Instagram story to applaud his fiery knock from the other half of ‘SurVir’ and tagged SKY.
The BCCI later revealed the video of Suryakumar’s reaction to Kohli’s Insta story, and he replied: “Bhau, bohot saara pyaar. See you soon (Brother, lots of love. See you soon!)”
Instagram story by Virat Kohli about Suryakumar Yadav. pic.twitter.com/eNFrcHjGeN
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 7, 2023
Raw emotions 🎦
A Suryakumar fandom frenzy 👏🏻
A special reply to an Instagram story 😉
Unparalleled love for SKY from his fans as he signs off from Rajkot 🤗#TeamIndia | #INDvSL | @surya_14kumar pic.twitter.com/wYuRKMNv1L
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 8, 2023
Bhau sabse upar
During the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, Suryakumar rose to the number 1 ICC T20I batsmen’s rankings for the first time in his career, toppling aside the Pakistani duo of Babar and Rizwan.
In the game against New Zealand, while other Indian batters got stuck in, Suryakumar stood apart and played his regularly fluent knock, scoring 51* off 25 balls, and shared a partnership of 95* (48) with Kohli.
On Kohli’s Instagram post after the victory, Suryakumar commented, “Fire hai”. To this Kohli replied back with more praise to Suryakumar Yadav, hailing the new top-ranked T20I batsman. “@surya_14kumar bhau sabse upar #1” Kohli replied and took the internet by storm once again.
The bond of Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav – The Bromance, SurVIR. pic.twitter.com/kKNXEDbyBV
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) November 3, 2022
A 2-word comment from Kohli for Suryakumar
Suryakumar Yadav did another demolition job at the T20 World Cup – 61* (25), 6 fours and 4 sixes in Melbourne.
Celebrating his another otherwordly knock and India’s win, Suryakumar Yadav posted pics on Instagram with caption “No better feeling”.
Kohli sneaked into the comments and posted another epic, 2-word comment for Suryakumar: “Alag level”
.@imVkohli approves 👌 👌#TeamIndia | @surya_14kumar | #T20WorldCup | #INDvZIM pic.twitter.com/2aFdGaqct7
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 6, 2022
When even the King bowed down to Suryakumar
Kohli’s gestures are sometimes even more explanatory and powerful than mere statements. When he bowed down to Suryakumar Yadav following the latters’ marvelous knock against Hong Kong in the Asia Cup, the world took notice once again.
India’s Mr 360, Suryakumar lit up the bull ring stadium of Dubai by smashing 68 runs in 26 balls – walloping 6 fours and 6 sixes’ His knock was so thunderous that even led Virat Kohli to bow down to India’s most in-form T20 batsman. Kohli and SKY shared a partnership of 98* (42), but Kohli was mostly a bystander at the non-striker’s end as SKY did his magic.
When both of them walked off the pitch after the completion of India’s innings, Kohli urged the crowd to cheer louder for Suryakumar Yadav. Kohli was even seen asking his Indian teammates that “yeh kya hai, yeh kya hai”, with a look of amazement, referring to SKY’s incredible ability to access every part of the ground.
Virat Kohli is all of us right now!
“We bow to you Surya”
“Kya knock tha yaar”#INDvHKG | #HKGvIND pic.twitter.com/w2Pcosi8O9
— 🏏Flashscore Cricket Commentators (@FlashCric) August 31, 2022
