Have literally felt him on the ground whenever he's leading: Suryakumar Yadav on Rohit Sharma

Tags: India, Rohit Gurunath Sharma, Suryakumar Ashok Yadav

Published on: Jul 17, 2022

Team India batter Suryakumar Yadav has praised Indian captain Rohit Sharma for playing a key role in his development as a cricketer and guiding him through rough phases. Rohit is also the 31-year-old’s captain at the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians. While he has made a belated entry into international cricket, Suryakumar is making up for lost time with some impressive performances

He has 294 runs in eight ODI innings at an average of 49 and 537 runs in 17 T20Is innings, boosted by the remarkable hundred in a losing cause at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Admitting Rohit’s influence on his growth, Suryakumar said, "He's been watching me and talking about my cricket since I played domestic cricket. Coming into IPL in 2018-19 we used to talk a lot about my game, how I can improve, handle pressure situations and move forward and take the game ahead.

“We have had a lot of chat about my game and I have literally felt him on the ground whenever he's leading. I have learnt a lot form him. I'm really happy he has shown a lot of confidence in me. I still remember during 2021 IPL second leg, I was not going through a good patch and he was the one who had a lot of chat with me (and supported me). The way things are going, I would like to pay back that confidence by scoring runs and winning the game for the team," the middle-order batter added.

What has stood out about the right-hander’s batting in his short international career, and in the IPL before that, has been his ability to score at a fast clip without resorting to slogging. He is making his name as a 360-degree player and has a wonderful strike rate of 177.22 as of now in T20Is.

Opening up on his style of play, Suryakumar said, "My mindset is the same in one-day cricket, I try to bat the same way I do in T20 cricket. Playing your natural game is very important. There is also an advantage in ODIs as there are five fielders inside the circle. So your strokes and intent are always about scoring runs. So I have the same mindset. Even if wickets fall I try to keep the scoreboard ticking to make sure that we don't fall short of runs if I need to finish the game in the last 10-15 overs.”

Apart from international matches, Suryakumar has the experience of 123 IPL games in which he has scored 2644 runs at an average of 30.39 and a strike rate of 136.78.

–By A Cricket Correspondent

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