India’s explosive batter Suryakumar Yadav has been a huge asset for the Indian team, especially in the white-ball format. But it has been a while since he unleashed fire with his willow both in T20I and 50-over format. Since Shreyas Iyer is injured, Surya got a chance to fill his spot but then he failed to capitalize.
The Mumbai-based batter has only managed to score 19 and 24, adding to the tally of his 17 innings without a fifty in ODIs. Fans are really disappointed with his performance and now his comment on spinner Kuldeep Yadav during the second ODI against West Indies on Saturday has left the fans annoyed.
The incident transpired in the 29th over of West Indies’ innings in Barbados. Windies were just 48 runs away from leveling the series and Kuldeep was handed over the ball to bowl his seventh over. Just when he started bowling, Surya who was placed at the covers was caught by a stump mic commenting, “Tu hamara Kachra hai”, citing one of the renowned characters of the iconic Bollywood movie Lagaan, who was a spin bowler.
The remark was made to cheer up Kuldeep who scalped the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer with a googly earlier in the game. The Uttar Pradesh-based spinner did not manage to pick any more wickets but Suryakumar’s remarks drew criticism from fans.
Even though Surya is going through a rough patch in the ongoing Caribbean tour, head coach Rahul Dravid backed the batter.
“I think Surya is a really good player, there’s no doubt about it," Dravid said.
“His performances have shown that especially in T20 cricket, even in domestic white-ball cricket, he has some very good performances.
“Even he (Suryakumar) would be the first one to admit that his ODI numbers probably haven’t been up to the high standards that he has set in T20. He’s probably learning one-day cricket. He has played a lot of IPL, a lot of competitive T20 cricket before India debut but in terms of one-day cricket, he probably hasn’t that much - there’s no IPL in one-day cricket. So he’s learning, figuring out how to bat through those middle overs,” Dravid said in the post-match presser.