Former India chief selector MSK Prasad has backed Suryakumar Yadav to be part of the ODI World Cup squad despite questions over his form in the 50-over format of the game. The senior national team has come up with eleventh-hour experiments to zero in on a settled line-up with less than 2 months to go for the Cricket World Cup, starting October at Home.
Suryakumar made his debut in the ODI format in July 2021 after he made a sensational T20I debut earlier in the year. And Suryakumar has since played the most number of ODIs for India — 26, one more than Shubman Gill in the said period.
However, his numbers have been far from impressive in the ODI format. Suryakumar is the NO. 1 batter in T20Is with 3 hundreds in the shortest format of the game. He has been breaking records at will in T20Is but his ODI form has been an enigma. Suryakumar Yadav has had the backing of the team management, which has shown faith in his match-winning ability and his incredible range in terms of coverage of the field.
Despite the injuries to India’s batting mainstays in KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar has not good use of the opportunities that have come his way, failing to put an end to debates around his selection.
“I am 100 percent sure that Suryakumar will go to the World Cup. If someone can be a No. 1 player in the T20 format, it means he has special talent which we have seen in the T20Is that he has played for the country and in the IPL. We know about his ability to soak in pressure,” MSK Prasad told indiatoday.in.
Meanwhile, the former chief selector, who was in the middle of the storm at the 2019 World Cup over India’s No.4 conundrum, opined that Suryakumar Yadav was not able to get role clarity in the ODI team. Prasad highlighted that his recent comments about chats with the team management revealed he was slowly but surely getting a grip of his responsibility in the team.
In the 24 innings that Suryakumar Yadav has played, he has batted at No. 5 the most — 11. The Mumbai batter has played at 5 different positions, not having been able to cement a spot in the XI.
Suryakumar said after his match-winning 83 in a T20I against the West Indies in Guyana on August 8 that he had no shame in admitting his numbers were poor in the ODIs and that he has been told by the team management to work on batting in the last 15-18 overs.
[11/08,”I personally feel that he has still not got hold of his role in the team. If he gets hold of his role and plays accordingly, I am sure he will be one of the biggest match-winners and the best finisher for India in the World Cup. He has got the ability and we need to back him,” Prasad said.
“What Rohit and Dravid have now done is fantastic, probably they have given him role clarity. That will definitely help him because that (the finisher’s role) is the situation he enjoys the most. I am sure that would be a huge relief to Suryakumar and he can also start planning accordingly,” he added.
