Despite consistent performances in domestic cricket and IPL. Suryakumar Yadav had to wait quite long to earn his maiden-national call-up, but when he was finally given a chance, the Mumbai-born batter made it count.
Surya is now an automatic choice in the squad and the legendary Wasim Akram has now labelled him as a “phenomenal” player.
The former Pakistan captain has been quite impressed with Surya’s one particular shot.
“Of course, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli are there, but one of my favourite players these days, in this shorter format is Suryakumar Yadav. He has been phenomenal,” Akram said while responded to a query on India batters.
Akram had first seen Surya’s sublime batting in the IPL.
He was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders coaching unit when Surya represented them and used to bat at No. 7 and 8.
And Akram then talked about some of the difficult shots that the 31-year-old batter used to pull off with sheer ease.
“And a couple of shots he played – the one that he picks from the middle of his bat towards fine leg – that’s an unusual and difficult shot to muster,” the former Pakistan fast bowler recalled.
Surya made his international debut last year in March during the second T20I match against England in Ahmedabad. His ODI debut came against Sri Lanka in July 2021.
He recently scored his first international hundred.
During the England tour last month, Surya played a blistering knock of 117 off just 55 balls and with this he became just the fourth Indian cricketer to notch a century in the shortest format of the game.
Versatility has been one of the key aspects of Surya’s batting.
Primarily seen as a middle order batter, Surya also opened batting in the T20I series against West Indies. And it did not take too long for him to excel in the new role as well.
In the third T20I, he scored 77 runs off just 44 deliveries to help Team India win the contest by seven wickets.
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