'Fearless' Suryakumar Yadav staying true to his word

During an interview, when Suryakumar Yadav was asked to sum up his approach to the game in one word, he declared – "fearless".

The above statement was made even before he played international cricket and it is a credit to his confidence and quality that he has continued to play exactly in the way he had promised.

Having built a formidable reputation in the domestic circuit and the Indian Premier League, now, Yadav is doing the same on the international stage.

The demands on a batter are changing, especially in T20 cricket. In the future, it will be all about the 360-degree batters. For the current generation, it is learning on the job. Some have picked up the tricks and skills, but even the best are finding it difficult. Wednesday's Asia Cup game was a classic example. For the classical players, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, it was a real struggle even against an inexperienced attack like Hong Kong, on the other hand, there was Yadav showing a perfect template of what a future T20 batter will look like.

A player not afraid to innovate, he made 68 not out off just 26 balls -- playing a scoop over the shoulder, there was a carved six over backward point, a flicked six over mid-wicket; off his first six balls, he tried four sweep shots, hitting three of them for fours before finishing off with four sixes in the final over of the innings. Struggling at 94 for two in 13 overs, the 31-year-old lifted India to a mammoth 192 for two.

When he bats the way he did in his last innings, fans and critics alike are left marveling at the potential of the Mumbai batter. Unlike most India batters with the gift of the silken touch, he is a destroyer of attacks. The beauty of his game is he can bat out of his comfort zone. There's no fuss about a fixed position. He can open, bat at No 3-4-5, or even carry out the finisher's role. In the top order, he gets more balls to put pressure on the opposition, but he can make an impact as a finisher too.

"I'm really flexible to bat at any number," he said after the win against Hong Kong. "In fact, I've told the coach and the captain - 'play me anywhere, just let me play'," he added.

The reason -- he has built his game on staying one step ahead of the opponent, playing with the bowler's mind, pitting the brains against his. He seems to have a sense of where the ball will be delivered and how he will hit it. For India, he has batted from No 1 to 5 and his overall strike-rate is a staggering 177.52.

The man with the best seat in the stadium, non-striker Virat Kohli, was amazed with Yadav's show. "He came in and completely changed the momentum of the game on a pitch that was not as easy as he made it look to bat on," Kohli said in a chat with Yadav for the BCCI website. "It was a brilliant knock. I have seen so many from a distance when we played the IPL, but this was my first experience of watching it very closely. I was completely blown away."

A glimpse of his prowess

His international career (25 T20Is, 23 innings) is still at a nascent stage and the cricket world has been treated to only glimpses of his prowess. A game against Hong Kong is not the right contest to measure a player's true ability and a regular exhibition of his full range of strokes -- that has been seen in Mumbai's maidans, on the domestic circuit and in the Indian Premier League, is still awaited. There have been occasional blinders, like the century (117 off 55 balls) against England in the third T20I at Nottingham in July, and 77 (44 balls) versus West Indies in August at Basseterre, but the expectations are way higher.

To be spoken of in the same bracket as Jos Buttler, he has to have an impact in the pressure matches and on the big stage like the T20 World Cup.

The quality is there, but going forward, the challenge for him will be to cash in on the opportunities. The two games against Pakistan are an example of contests where he will be really tested and has to make a mark. In 2021 October, at the T20 World Cup, he was out for an 8-ball 11, and in the Asia Cup game on Sunday he again fell cheaply (18-ball 18).

Against Hong Kong, he was the one attacking the bowler. Against Pakistan, a bowler like Naseem Khan is also looking to attack him. Yadav was ready for the slog but Khan still had the confidence to fire in a back-of-a-length delivery on the off-stump to take his wicket. At the World Cup, Hasan Ali had tested his defence with a length ball to get the outside edge.

Yadav can take confidence from the fact that he has done well against the best bowlers in the world in the IPL: like during his innings of 79 off 47 balls (SR 168) against Rajasthan Royals at UAE in 2020, where he put Jofra Archer under the pump. There was not just the lap over fine-leg, there was the last-moment scoop over the slip when Archer went full outside off stump to leave Brian Lara marvelling at the batter's audacity to try something as daring against one of the world's most fearsome fast bowlers. Yadav was Mumbai Indians' highest run scorer with 500-plus runs when picked to open in the 2018 IPL edition and followed it up with 400-plus runs in 2019 and 2020. In an injury-marred 2022 season, he did well to get 303 runs in eight games.

For the upcoming World Cup in Australia, October-November, he is being seen as India's trump card. It is the perfect stage for him to put on a show against quality opponents; a perfect stage for him to shine.