The former Australia captain heaped effusive praise on India’s middle-order batter Suryakumar Yadav, likening his range and “360 degrees” game in limited-overs cricket to that of South African legend AB de Villiers.
Ponting, impressed by the number of shots that Suryakumar has up his arsenal, said he reminds him of de Villiers and his remarkable ability to turn good balls into boundary options and hit them to all parts of the ground.
Ponting’s remarks came after the Indian right-hander rose up the rankings ladder to become the world’s No.2 T20I batter in men’s cricket, just short of the numero uno spot held by Pakistan’s modern-day giant Babar Azam.
A late bloomer into the Indian team, SKY has scored 672 runs from his 23 T20Is for the country since his debut early last year, averaging 37.33 with a strike rate of 175.45. He became only the fifth Indian male batter to record a T20I century recently when he smashed England for 117 off just 55 deliveries at Trent Bridge last month.
“Surya (Yadav) scores 360 degrees around the ground, a bit like an AB de Villiers did when he was in his actual prime. The lap shots, the late cuts, you know, the ramps over the keeper’s head. He can hit down the ground,”
Ponting said on an episode of The ICC Review.
“He hits really well over the leg side, flicks to deep backward square particularly well, and he’s a good player of fast bowling and is a good player of spin bowling.”
Ponting backed Suryakumar to own a place in India’s T20 World Cup side in Australia, calling him a “confident” and skilful individual whom the Australian fans would love to see get going during the marquee event in October-November.
During the trip to West Indies earlier this month, Suryakumar also showed his flexibility by adjusting to the role of an opening batter against the two-time T20 World Cup champions. He collected 135 runs at 33.75 with a strike-rate of 168.75 from the series, with the highlight being a match-winning 76 off 44 in St Kitts in the third T20I.
Eyebrows were raised to see Surykumar being promoted up the order, with skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid unexpectedly asking their middle-order batter to move up when KL Rahul is likely to slot in at the top alongside Rohit at the World Cup, with Rishabh Pant potentially playing backup. But Dravid chose to widen the net in quest of carving out greater depth within the squad, keeping the World Cup in mind.
Aware of the same, Ponting said it augurs well for India that Suryakumar can bat “one, two or four” depending on what the team requires. But the Aussie legend also laid clear his preference to see the player bat in the middle-order at No.4 and control the proceedings from there with his allround game.
“For Surya, it’s one, two or four. I think he can open, but I think he’s probably, you know, if you could probably just keep him away from the new ball, let him control the middle part of the game outside the Powerplay, through in the middle, and if he’s in at the end, you know what can happen,”
he said.
Ponting’s words are backed by numbers. When he manages to play through the middle stage of the innings and enter the death, Suryakumar turns into a different beast altogether. He has an end-overs strike-rate of 258.82 with eight fours and seven sixes in the five innings that he has played in that phase.
