Suryakumar Yadav shows even the SKY may not be the limit

Imagine this: you are only into your second year of international cricket. This is your first T20I series in one of the SENA countries and you are walking out to a jam-packed stadium at Trent Bridge, with India huffing and puffing in their pursuit of 216.

There are butterflies in your stomach. You want to do well but for just that slight moment, nerves seem to be taking over. You’ve done this countless times in the IPL but this still feels a little different. There is a T20 World Cup on the horizon too, with the glut of middle-order batting options transforming each innings into a potential audition.

Then, there is also the small matter of having lost two big wickets. Rishabh Pant, who thrilled at Edgbaston as an opener, has perished. Virat Kohli has played another skittish 6-ball knock and has left India in a greater state of turmoil than when he walked in. Rohit Sharma is holding fort, although he doesn’t seem to be in great rhythm.

Sounds quite daunting, eh?

To most cricketers, yes. For Suryakumar Yadav, it’s just another day at the office. Not because Kohli and Rohit have struggled for runs in the recent past, but because Suryakumar, courtesy of his expansive repertoire of strokes, knows how to handle himself and transfer the pressure onto the opposition.

At Trent Bridge, he doesn’t get off to a flying start per se. The fifth ball he faces rears up off a length and whistles past his outside edge. With only two runs off five balls, there is restless energy at the ground, considering Rohit is also not at his fluent best.

But then Suryakumar does what he usually does. He shuts out all the white noise. Forgets where he is. Forgets the kind of predicament India is in. And forgets what the ramifications would be if he were to fail. He watches Richard Gleeson run in and attempt a yorker on off stump. The Englishman doesn’t quite execute it and the ball ends up being a low full-toss.

Low full-tosses are generally tough to get away. Suryakumar, though, because of the clarity running through his veins, knows exactly what he wants to do with it. He crouches down low and creams it past extra cover for four.

It isn’t the best shot he executes at Trent Bridge. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But because he shows such an uncluttered mindset – that too at the start of an innings and in trying circumstances, it becomes very pertinent. Not just from a match perspective, but to understand that Suryakumar, blessed with a clear thought-process, is India’s best T20 batter.

Suryakumar Yadav was at his dexterous best at Trent Bridge

Over the next hour and a bit, the right-handed batter does everything expected of him. And a lot more. He pulls, he paddle-pulls, he scoops, he scythes it over backward point and he smears it over long on. Whenever India require a boundary, he finds a way. At times, it feels that he might not have many options left. Yet, he always seems a step ahead of the bowlers, almost telling them that they have no answers to the questions he is going to pose.

The best part about it, though, is that he had two or three shots for every ball the bowler was going to bowl. On occasions, having too many options is one of the greatest follies for an international batter. For Suryakumar, it is just another opportunity to brazenly proclaim how special a talent he is.

Much of this success stems from what goes on in the space between the ears. He approaches games with a clear mindset and knows exactly what he wants to do and how he wants to achieve it. And, of course, he knows that when the going gets tough, he just needs to watch the ball and react. That might seem very simple. But at the highest level, there are so many ancillary aspects that this basic fundamental often gets clouded.

From a broader perspective, Suryakumar’s propensity to throw caution to the wind yet stay in his calm, zen-like bubble, is the philosophy India want to preach in the shortest format too. Throughout this series, they’ve stuck to their cavalier and gung-ho characteristics. There has been the odd instance when it hasn’t worked but as Suryakumar showed at Trent Bridge, it could pay dividends if you commit to it completely.

Post that extraordinary knock at Trent Bridge, he now has the highest strike rate (177.22) for any batter (among Test-playing nations) to have faced a minimum of 200 balls in T20I cricket. His tally is also considerably higher than Andre Russell, Evin Lewis, Glenn Maxwell and Liam Livingstone, hinting that brute strength can be trumped by pure artistry.

Since his T20I debut, only six batters (among Test-playing nations) have a better batting average than Suryakumar. Of those, none strike at more than 150, illustrating how good the Mumbai Indians batter has been and how his skill-set, which includes belligerent consistency, isn’t rivalled by many on this planet.

Prior to the series against England, there had been the odd murmur that he doesn’t quite have the game to flourish in overseas conditions and that he might not be as much of a certainty as some others for the T20 World Cup.

But he let the bat do the talking – like he always does. Before he burst onto the international stage, there was scepticism. Many said he could only scoop the ball and would struggle against high-class pace. Then, people questioned his ability to excel in testing conditions. The opinions have varied but the end result has remained the same.

So, this rendition of his talent at Trent Bridge, plus the continued success since his T20I bow, make you question how high the ceiling can be for Suryakumar. The sky then, might not be the limit for Suryakumar. In fact, no one really knows what the limit for him is.

The right-handed batter epitomizes everything good about the Men In Blue’s new approach and, in many ways, this change in tack has come about because players of his ilk have been brave enough to adopt it well before it really became a vogue.

If Suryakumar is not on that plane to Australia for the T20 World Cup, India might as well not send a team altogether. That’s how important he has become to this set-up. And if he keeps batting this way, it will remain that way for the foreseeable future.