About 20 months ago, a 30-year-old Suryakumar Yadav would have been only wondering whether he will ever have an international career; whether he’ll ever don the blue India jersey.
Cut to October 2022, going into the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, not only Suryakumar Yadav has emerged as one of the best T20 batters in the world – and arguably the most in-form one – but he was India’s biggest hope in the batting department, and a chief reason for the Men In Blue still being touted as favorites despite losing the likes of Jadeja and Bumrah to injury, and their openers being inconsistent.
Suryakumar Yadav has become a middle-order force as few Indian batters have in T20Is. After his latest blistering knock – 51* off 25 balls – SKY has one of the most staggering T20I numbers in the world: 34 T20I innings, an average of 39 and a strike rate of 177 having notched up 10 fifties and a century.
To highlight why Suryakumar Yadav is perhaps the best T20 batter in the world: with a minimum of 100 balls faced in the middle overs and 50 balls at the death, his strikes rates of 170.49 and 243.43 respectively in those two phases is the highest among batters of full member teams since 2021. Yadav starts in the third gear and only goes up.
Suryakumar Yadav reveals which Australian batsman he used to idolize as a kid
Earlier while speaking with ESPNcricinfo, Suryakumar Yadav had revealed former Australia batting legend Steve Waugh’s heroics against West Indies in the 1990s that moved him and inspired him as a kid. Yadav said he moulded his own batting style following the footsteps of Waugh.
“I used to see how Steve Waugh played against West Indies fast bowlers. How he reacted when he went in to bat. The only one word I took from that video was: Attack is the best form of defence. I try to put pressure on the opposition,” Yadav said.
“I watch videos of best innings across all formats on YouTube because I used to learn what a batter did in a particular situation. What I can do when I go in to bat? How I can improve as a batter? The habit started in 2010-11 when I made by debut for Mumbai, and I continue to do so,” he added.
