Former India opener Aakash Chopra was in awe of Suryakumar Yadav’s six-hitting prowess in the T20I format after the stand-in Indian captain headlined the successful 209-run chase against Australia with a superb 80 off 42 balls.Calling Suryakumar Yadav, a 360-degree player, Aakash said that the destructive batter plays with freedom in the shortest format. Suryakumar Yadav’s captain’s knock helped a young Indian squad overcome the disappointment of a World Cup final defeat, but it was Rinku Singh’s poise that led a youthful Indian side to a dramatic two-wicket win.
“He is a 360-degree kind of player who comes in with a reputation that makes bowlers think differently. Plan differently, have rather strange field positions because he makes you do that. He plays with freedom in the shortest format and the pitch that was there was for him to exploit because this is the kind of surface you get 9 out of 10 times in T20Is,” Aakash Chopra said on Jio Cinema.
“He comes into his own when he is batting in this format and therefore, you always saw that there was a deep fine leg in, there was a mid-on fielder inside the circle. You need those different field positions even though your plans are very different. You can think of bowling a back-of-the-hand slower one, but even while doing so, he can hit you over fine leg for a six. Then he hits you straight,” Chopra added.
Suryakumar got into the groove of his usual pick-up short off Jason Behrendorff behind the keeper for a six, and the keeper-batter appeared to gather confidence as he lofted Sean Abbott over deep mid-wicket for a big six. Surya lofted Abbott for a maximum, and both batted as Kishan found his match in leg-break bowler Tanveer Sangha, who was sent on a leather-hunt.Sangha’s leg breaks were literally long hops into the left-hander, and three of Kishan’s five sixes were muscled in the same region, but it was the desire for a sixth six over extra cover that was his undoing. Suryakumar, on the other hand, blasted the finest six of the game when he reached his first half-century with a lofted on-drive off Abbott.
