Suryakumar Yadav - A middle order solution India shouldn't ignore

Over the past year, not many cricketers have created as many ripples in international cricket as Suryakumar Yadav. The Mumbai Indians batter, who only made his India debut in March 2021, has captured the imagination since and has already morphed into one of the Men In Blue’s most crucial white-ball cogs.

Such has been Suryakumar’s meteoric rise that he was drafted into the Indian team for the five-Test series against England, just days after he participated in the Men In Blue’s white-ball tour to Sri Lanka.

At the time, his selection, along with that of Prithvi Shaw, was looked upon as a stop-gap arrangement, just in case one of India’s premier batters either got injured or began enduring a wretched run of form.

Though India have been lucky on the injury front, the same can hardly be said about their batters’ form. On occasions, the lower middle order and the tail has bailed the visitors out. However, there is no escaping the fact that the top five (barring KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma) have largely not punched according to their weight.

Ajinkya Rahane, in particular, has been quite abysmal and apart from a half-century at Lord’s, has looked a rabbit caught in the headlights and has resembled anything but an international cricketer with years of experience. With the Delhi Capitals batter not being able to buy a run at The Oval either, the pressure has been amped up significantly.

Not just because India can’t keep relying on the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav for runs, but also because players such as Suryakumar and Hanuma Vihari are waiting in the wings.

As things stand, it seems that one of Suryakumar or Vihari would replace Rahane, provided the Indian team doesn’t conveniently shut out the “outside noise”. Though that particular trait helps in some situations, the current circumstances, both from the inside and the outside, portray that Rahane is woefully out of form and someone who needs a break.

If raw numbers are considered, Vihari seems best placed to replace Rahane. The former, in his last Test, battled with a bruised hamstring to guide India to safety at the Sydney Cricket Ground, whereas his overall Test record, despite not standing out, is sturdy enough.

Additionally, in the last Ranji Trophy season he played (2017-18), he was the fifth highest run-scorer overall, aggregating 752 runs at an astonishing average of 94. That campaign also included a mammoth 302*, hinting that Vihari has the knack of settling down for the long haul.

In contrast, Suryakumar’s finest recent domestic hours have arrived in the white-ball formats, where he has stood out as arguably the most impactful batter in India. When talking about First Class cricket, his overall average paints a solid picture, for he averages 44.01 across his career. Suryakumar also has 14 centuries and 26 fifties to his name, suggesting that he has often played decisive red-ball knocks for Mumbai.

Over the past two Ranji Trophy seasons, though, the numbers take a dip. In 2017-18, Suryakumar scored 480 runs at an average of 38.33, whereas a season later, his corresponding tally was 273 runs at 34.12.

If these stats are compiled since the start of September 2017, Suryakumar has accumulated 1233 runs at an average of 39.77 – something that pales in comparison to someone like Vihari but is adept enough to not completely lose track of.

Will Vihari get a gig at Old Trafford?

Suryakumar Yadav could play a counter-attacking role

However, Suryakumar, as plenty of people have witnessed recently, doesn’t come across as a batter whose class is only reflected by raw numbers. Though that certainly allows better clarity on the sort of cricketer he is, the kind of controlled aggression, counter-punching ability and positivity he brings is perhaps unrivalled.

In white-ball cricket, Suryakumar has almost always had to increase the tempo. When faced with similar circumstances, most batters would usually throw caution to the wind and deploy strokes that are filled with risk but accord significant returns. Suryakumar, though, has made it a habit to play percentage (or risk-free) strokes, while still managing to keep up with the team’s run-scoring needs.

While it would be naïve to assume that Test cricket would be as forgiving as ODIs and T20Is, there definitely exists a template that could be useful. Not just because he seems well-equipped to do so but also because this could be the need of the hour for India.

Over the four Tests this summer, England have had a propensity to crumble under pressure, whether it be with the bat or the ball. At Lord’s, when Bumrah and Shami began swinging their bat, Joe Root seldom opted for the more attacking option, instead hoping for the batters to make mistakes.

Root's captaincy has left a lot to be desired

Even at The Oval, England were content to contain the Indians, despite the game being within their grasp for a period on Day 4. Thus, the hosts are prone to not making the right decisions when put under the cosh – something that Suryakumar might be able to exploit batting at No.6.

Additionally, it seems clear that India want to give Ravindra Jadeja a longer rope at No.5. After all, he remains the only Indian to score three triple hundreds in First Class cricket.

To be completely honest, Jadeja deserves that run because he has been India’s savior quite regularly recently. However, with him not batting lower down the order, India might miss a batter capable of providing the requisite thrust – again, something that plays into Suryakumar’s hands. The fact that Rahane, at least at this juncture, seems incapable of attacking or defending, only strengthens Suryakumar’s case for inclusion.

Apart from that, England aren’t expected to make too many changes to their bowling attack, meaning that Chris Woakes, James Anderson and Ollie Robinson look primed to feature. That, though, doesn’t discount the fact that they bowled a ton of overs at The Oval and might start feeling its effects if India get stuck into them at Old Trafford.

If that happens, then Suryakumar is the ideal batter to heap more misery on the English bowlers and propel India into a position of ascendancy. So far in the series, India have often let the hosts into the game with their middle order looking clueless but if they can thwart a collapse then that, in combination with their openers’ form, could spell doom for England.

The most telling bit, though, is that Suryakumar is high on confidence at the moment. Everything that he has touched in international cricket has turned into gold and after years of toil in the domestic circuit, that is richly deserved too.

Thus, confidence isn’t going to be at a premium – something that is the case with Rahane. Before one forgets, Suryakumar, for all his extraordinary feats in white-ball cricket, still averages 44.01 in First-Class cricket - a tally that shouldn’t be scoffed at.

Throughout the Test series, India have found heroes at different junctures and have ensured that their misfiring middle order’s frailties haven’t been exposed as much as it could’ve been.

And, courtesy of everything Suryakumar has achieved already in his brief international career, one wouldn’t put it past him to become the latest beacon of inspiration for India.

Quite simply, he is a middle-order solution India shouldn’t ignore and an option that isn’t too averse to creating a ripple in international cricket as well!