Veteran Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh has hailed Mumbai Indians (MI) star batsman Suryakumar Yadav as the Indian AB de Villiers after his stellar show in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. Suryakumar has been one of the strongest pillars of the Mumbai Indians batting line-up over the past three seasons and has played an instrumental role in the team’s success in the lucrative tournament. Former Mumbai Indians spinner Harbhajan, who currently is part of the Chennai Super Kings squad in IPL, compared Suryakumar to De Villiers for possessing the ability to play strokes all around the ground like Mr. 360.
“There is no doubt that Suryakumar Yadav has transformed himself from being the game-changer to a primary match-winner for the Mumbai Indians. He had taken up a lot of responsibility of their batting,” Harbhajan said on Star Sports.
Harbhajan has been a huge admirer of Suryakumar and has often spoken about his potential to be a star for Team India. He had recently expressed his disappointment when the MI star was not selected for the upcoming T20I series against Australia despite his dazzling performances in IPL 2020.
Suryakumar was the third-highest run-getter for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2020 with 480 runs from 16 games at an impressive strike rate of over 145 and an average of 40. Harbhajan highlighted SKY’s ability to take the attack to the opposition right from the start and called him India’s AB de Villiers for his range of shots.
“And it is not that he plays at the strike rate of 100, if you see his strike rate, he starts hitting from the first ball itself. It is difficult to stop him as he has all types of shots. He hits overs covers, plays the sweep also well, plays spin very well, plays fast bowling amazingly well. He is the Indian AB de Villiers,” said Harbhajan.
Suryakumar has now scored a staggering 1416 runs for Mumbai Indians in the last three seasons.
