World Cup-winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav says he yearns to play Test cricket, finds ODI not his cup of tea, but ultimately his forte is T20 because “usmey apna haath set ho gaya hai”. Roughly translated, he meant to say he is now a master of the shortest format of cricket and is comfortable playing that.
Opening up about his disappointment at not playing Test cricket, Suryakumar said, “...what is written in your life, you get that only. I started with red-ball cricket itself, played Ranji Trophy for 10-12 years. I played a lot of red-ball cricket in Bombay because if you grow up in Bombay, you start with red ball itself, so everything is around red ball. But gradually, when we started playing white ball cricket, the inclination shifted a bit towards that. And after that, I came to T20 format. I also tried a lot in one-day cricket to play well in it, but nothing happened there.”
But given an opportunity, he would want to play Test cricket. “I would love to because as I mentioned, I played red ball cricket from 2010-11 to 2020. So, 10 years is a long time to play red ball, and I was in love with that format. But yeah, obviously, given an opportunity, who wouldn’t want to play Test?” he said.
Still, at 35 years of age it is not easy for Suryakumar to get into the Test team. His only experience in Test was in 2023 against Australia in Nagpur when he scored eight runs in one inning. The same year he appeared in the ODI World Cup final against Australia when he scored 18 off 28 balls. India lost the final and Suryakumar has not played in that format since.
‘Picked Ishan for World Cup on gut feeling’
Suryakumar said he brought power-hitter Ishan Kishan into the T20 World Cup-winning team purely on gut feeling because he felt the Bihar batsman had the X-factor that could turn around matches. Asked what made him pick Ishan over Jitesh Sharma, he said, “It was completely on gut. The decision was very harsh on Jitesh at that time because he was playing with the team for over a year.”
‘Sanju changed course of T20 World Cup’
“...after Sanju Samson got included in the side, I think the tide completely changed. And it was a little bit of tactical decision as well because two left-handers, actually three left-handers were batting at the top,” Suryakumar said. He said Samson was working hard behind the scenes and not many had an idea as to what he was going through. “He is a great talent and most importantly he is a great human being.”
‘India has the talent to form multiple IPL teams’
Suryakumar called the current group “the best T20 team India has produced”, adding that India’s depth in T20 cricket is now too evident to be downplayed.
"If you talk about talent, I feel you can find talent regularly. There is IPL cricket, franchise cricket, then there is domestic cricket. You can see how many players come every year. So you can make as many teams as you want in T20 when I am talking about T20. I feel the talent is unlimited,” he said, crediting the team’s success coming into the World Cup to a collective approach in the dressing room.
Also read: Now, Olympic gold on cricketer Suryakumar Yadav’s bucket list
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