Virat Kohli plays conventional shots and is composed.
Suryakumar Yadav is innovative and impatient at the crease. India is reaping the benefits of this show of contrasts at the T20 World Cup, four group games in a row. Bowlers get assistance off the pitch and in the air, huge grounds with longer boundaries make strokeplay tougher, hence the fusion of timing and technique by the two batters deserves special mention.
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T20 is a fickle format, twists and turns every couple of overs.
Big-match players attempt to assert themselves and influence the match flow. Kohli and Surya have succeeded in dictating the pace of the game during short stints at the crease. The blossoming partnership between a multiple World Cupper and a debutant is based on mutual respect for the qualities the other brings to match situations. Together, this duo wrecked bowlers’ plans in the course of a merry journey.
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Kohli is the highest run-getter in T20 World Cups (going past Mahela Jayawardene’s aggregate of 1016), Surya enjoys pole position among batters in this format in ICC rankings. Records are meant to be broken, especially with a certain Dewald Brevis from South Africa emerging as a big-hitting phenomenon in world cricket. He may catch up, provided fitness can be sustained over decades, as the India number three batter displayed.
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The beauty of Kohli’s batting in T20 is the faith in basics and own abilities. He worked out his own language, sticking to his natural game and improvised along the way without sacrificing the gift of timing and balance at the crease. The jaw-dropping six off Haris Rauf in the World Cup chase against Pakistan is a deviation from the script in his mind, which the veteran batter himself admits to difficulty in explaining how the match-defining shot happened.
The fascination about Surya’s strokeplay lies in innovative ways of dispatching the ball to the ropes or into the stands. Timing and balance remain the cornerstones of his bold batting, the difference is in the ease with which the India number four World Cupper is able to connect. T20 turns into a spectacle, almost as if bowlers are testing themselves against a batting machine, who is re-defining the boundaries of audacious hitting.
The Asia Cup 2022 in the UAE set the tone for two contrasting batters to light a spark in their own individual styles. Kohli and Surya struck a rapport straightaway and fed off each other’s energy. Team India selectors and management may be tempted to repeat the experiment in Test cricket in near future, giving both batters more overs and time to express themselves on a tough overseas tour, on tracks encouraging for bowlers.
Brevis is the 360-degree batter getting noticed for SA, A B de Villiers from an older generation had set the standard in T20 shot-making. Surya arrived in Australia with a reputation for multiple strokes to deal with each ball, batting displays so far in difficult, diverse conditions prove the fear in bowlers’ minds about the impossibility of curbing the Indian is not misplaced. He exploded into action, bringing unique angles and strong wrists into play.
Kohli deviated from India’s T20 approach favouring relentless onslaught from the first ball faced, took his time to get his eye in before unleashing an array of stylish strokes against Pakistan. In keeping with his stature, the ex-India skipper has been granted the elbow room to get runs at his own pace. The batter’s displays back-to-back points to the utility of a stayer amidst a line-up packed with sloggers.
He is doing something right to average 53.13 runs in 113 T20 international appearances (before the World Cup 2022 group game against Zimbabwe), including 36 half-centuries and one ton. Team India can go to the extent of refining their batting template in T20 cricket, with one top order specialist staying at the crease as long as possible, playing low-risk strokes as the fireworks continue at the other end from others taking their chances.
Like the management approach now, mavericks like Surya can be backed to bat with abandon and deal with each ball on instinct, without worrying about retaining their place for the next game. K L Rahul comes in this category and hit form against Bangladesh after the initial struggle. Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik or Rishabh Pant are other hard-hitters with the courage and range of strokes to accelerate the scoring as required.
Over the course of time after his debut T20 World Cup is over, Surya extending confidence in white-ball cricket to Test cricket is a fascinating prospect, gaining expertise in shot selection with exposure, backed by the team management. Batting along with Virat Kohli and observing the champion batter from close quarters is essential for his game awareness to develop. The rapport and respect between these two will hasten progress.
Among others in the India mix, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja made the adjustments in his batting and is effective across formats when fit to play. Pandya is following down the same path, with mature performances under pressure in big matches, something Kohli mastered long ago to stamp his greatness, inspiring young and emerging batters beyond national boundaries. Backed by strong batting basics, a feel for timing and awareness about which bowler to target, a stayer among sloggers is leading the way in T20s.
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