Indian batsman Suryakumar Yadav is undoubtedly in the prime of his career. The right-hander is currently in the middle of a purple patch, where everything he has touched has turned into absolute gold. His form in the shortest format has been especially brilliant, with more than 1200 runs to his name since his debut in 2021.
What is particularly striking about Yadav is the remarkable strike rate at which he goes about his game. The Mumbai batter has an astounding career strike rate of 177.07 in 37 games, the highest in the history of the game. Considering the kind of oppositions he has faced during his time with the Indian team, which should have perhaps started sooner, the 32-year-old is on track to place himself in elite company at the end of his career.
Chennai Super Kings coach and ex-New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming was all praise for the 32-year-old, saying that he is in a space where ‘it is difficult to find an area of weakness in his game’.
“He just has a really positive mindset. And he has a very open and aggressive stance which allows him to play a lot of unusual areas.
So he’s sort of created a technique which bowlers are finding it hard to find the right lengths because if they’re full he’ll hit all the way over cover or around; if they’re fractionally short he’ll go over third man and point.”
Fleming remarked.
Yadav has been brilliant in the last two games in the T20 World Cup, getting a 25-ball 51* against the Netherlands before playing an outstanding knock of 68 against South Africa, albeit in a losing cause. Although his knock went in vain against the Proteas, the kind of surface the innings came on places it as one of the great innings in the format.
Roual Challengers Bangalore and former South African skipper Faf Du Plessis also hailed Yadav’s game and said that his approach was perfectly suited to the modern game.
“His skillset is so high that as a bowler you don’t feel like you can tie him down to certain areas. He’s got all the different shots, scores in all the different areas.
He knows when to pull that trigger, go through the gears, and he just always looks calm. He’s just a fantastic T20 player to watch. He’s the perfect guy that as a youngster you look at how you go through different gears at different stages of the game,”
he said.
