Kieron Pollard was effusive in praise for his Mumbai Indians teammate, Suryakumar Yadav, who helped India white-wash the West Indies 3-0 in the T20I series at Eden Gardens.
Yadav was the Player of the Match for his blistering knock of 65 runs off just 31 balls, and also the Player of the Series, for scoring 107 runs – most by an Indian batter in the series – at an average of 53 and a scintillating strike rate of 194.
Kieron Pollard has got the opportunity to observe Suryakumar’s progress over the years from close quarters in the IPL. He hailed Yadav for his 360-degree batting and also reckoned other batsmen should take learnings from the skilful Suryakumar.
“Surya is a world-class player. I had the opportunity to play at Mumbai Indians with him since he first came in in 2011. Great to see he has grown a lot since then. He is doing great things for himself and India as a 360-degree player. All batters can take a page out of his book,” Pollard said during a virtual press conference after the game.
Speaking about his innings on Sunday, Suryakumar Yadav asserted that he wanted to bat till the end after he came in at the score of 66/3 in the 10th over, and then saw skipper Rohit Sharma, who had demoted himself for this game, get out cheaply.
Suryakumar and Venkatesh Iyer then plundered 91 runs off just 37 balls to take India to 184, which proved to be 17 more than the West Indies could manage. Yadav said he was ready for such a situation.
Suryakumar said: “Just wanted to replicate what I did in the first game. Needed someone to stay there after Rohit got out and get the team to a defendable total. We had a long chat in the team meeting as to how we are going to react under immense pressure and it came out very well. I just try to keep things simple. Being a little harsh on yourself in the nets, don’t hit every ball wildly and have some quality sessions. Excited for the next series.”
India next host Sri Lanka for a 3-T20I series starting Thursday in Lucknow.
