How a brief chat with Mahela Jayawardene changed Suryakumar Yadav's powerplay game

Suryakumar Yadav has revealed how a brief chat with Mumbai Indians batting coach Mahela Jayawardene drastically revamped his powerplay game.

Suryakumar Yadav seldom batted in the first six overs of high-profile T20 games before IPL 2018. When the Mumbai Indians deployed him as a top-order batsman, Suryakumar Yadav initially found it difficult to take full advantage of the field restrictions.

He had a conversation with Jayawardene, who shared a few tips which helped Suryakumar Yadav settle into his new role. The Sri Lankan great asked the 30-year-old to focus on finding gaps and picking up doubles whenever possible.

"In 2019, he sat with me and explained it to me… what I should do in the powerplay and what I should do after the powerplay. Obviously, he wanted me to be a better cricketer at that moment and contribute more by being a little more smarter. So he just sat with me and he was like it’s upon you completely. He said only one thing, whenever you’re batting after the powerplay, just try and hit a lot of gaps, take twos, run hard between wickets and the strike rate also will be amazing. So I just did the same thing," Suryakumar Yadav told the Indian Express.

Suryakumar Yadav scored 424 runs in IPL 2019 at a strike rate of just above 130. His numbers improved considerably the following season, when the right-handed batsman accumulated 480 runs at a strike rate of over 145.

Patience ✅Consistency ✅Match-winning abilities ✅SKY sets the limit 😎🇮🇳#OneFamily #MumbaiIndians #INDvENG @surya_14kumar pic.twitter.com/VOuf1zEW1V

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) March 11, 2021

Suryakumar Yadav was also asked if the Mumbai Indians camp helped him work on his strokeplay on the off-side. Although the batsman denied specifically focussing on that aspect of his game, he explained he tried to improve his overall technique after 2018.

"I don’t remember there was any talk regarding offside play. Because when I opened that year, I played all around the park. So there was no talk about the offside play. But yeah, I knew I had to work a lot on my batting again because people will come up with different plans. So I had to cover all the areas or tick all the boxes, which I couldn’t do in the first year with my team," added Suryakumar Yadav.

Learned the sweep shot to counter turning tracks early in my career: Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav will make his T20I debut on Friday (PC: Instagram)

A feature of Suryakumar Yadav's batting is his impregnability against spin bowlers. Only 11 of his 35 IPL dismissals since 2018 have come against spinners. Credit for that goes to his deft footwork and his command over the sweep shot.

Speaking further on the matter, Suryakumar Yadav remarked that he learned and perfected the sweep shot while playing on turning tracks in his local grounds.

"The sweep was always there, because where I used to train there used to be a lot of turning tracks. To counter that I had to do something different. So right from the age of 14-15, I started playing sweep strokes. Slow and steady, maar maar ke aur aadat ban gai. Abhi mazaa aatha hain, shot khelne mein. I love it. (by playing it often, it became a habit. Now I enjoy playing the shot)," said Suryakumar Yadav.

Suryakumar Yadav will make his much-awaited T20I debut on Friday, March 12, against England in Ahmedabad.