The curious case of Suryakumar Yadav

With the exclusion of Suryakumar Yadav from India's squad for the T20I series versus Sri Lanka and ODI series versus Australia raising a few eyebrows, many questioned the team management and selectors for ignoring the kind of form he is in. Especially with the Indian middle-order struggling for consistency, Yadav could have been an inspired selection at number six instead of Kedar Jadhav, who has had a dismal 2019 and has not made the most of the chances that came his way.

Harbhajan Singh openly criticized the team management and selectors for not even considering Suryakumar Yadav a part of the squad and further adding that it seems there are different rules for different players.

The Indian batting line-up faltering against New Zealand in the World Cup semifinal was a clear indicator that the great form that Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli had brought into the World Cup had covered most of the huge cracks present in India's middle-order. Suryakumar Yadav would have brought an X-factor into the team and with his form and ability to bat anywhere in the middle-order, should have been a regular in the Indian white-ball team by now.

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Yadav came into the limelight when he was the vice-captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders under Gautam Gambhir and he shone as a finisher coming in at number seven and playing free-flowing unorthodox cricket shots, making a case for himself as a T20 specialist. But it was the 2018 IPL season where he started knocking on the doors of the national selectors. Opening the batting for Mumbai Indians in that season, Yadav scored 512 runs in 14 games at a healthy strike-rate of 133.33. But in the following season, with skipper Rohit Sharma announcing that he would open the batting for Mumbai alongside Quinton de Kock, Yadav was pushed down to number three and many expected that this move would unsettle him. But yet again he proved his versatility and ability to bat anywhere in the batting order, scoring 424 runs in 16 games at a similar strike-rate as to that of when he was opening.

Yadav backed up his IPL performances with a fantastic domestic season.

Yadav knew he had to back up the good performance in the IPL with a good white-ball season and he ended up doing exactly that. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019, Yadav scored 226 runs in 4 innings at a mind-boggling average of 113.00 and a strike rate of 154.79 which was the highest by any batsman in the tournament. In one of the games versus India A in the Deodhar Trophy, Yadav showed just how good he is at finishing, smashing a 29-ball 72* which included 9 fours and 4 sixes and an astonishing strike rate of 248.27, helping India C to a mammoth 232-run victory in the process. Yadav was also the second-highest run-scorer for Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament as he smashed 392 runs in 10 games at an average of 56 but more importantly again at an unbelievable strike-rate of 168.96.

Yadav will look to continue his hot run of form for India A on the New Zealand tour

Perhaps the only reason that Suryakumar Yadav is not a part of India's white-ball squad in place of Kedar Jadhav may be due to the ability of the latter to chip in with some overs. But one must question the selectors that shouldn't two batsmen be compared based on the number of runs scored in domestic cricket and consistency rather than the ability to bowl? Jadhav has had a horrible 2019, scoring just 115 runs in 9 games and his recent failure versus the West Indies at Cuttack could well have been a nail in the coffin as far as his ODI career was concerned.

However, the selectors and the team management have backed him for the ODI series against Australia and this could be a demoralizing blow for Yadav as he has done whatever he could as a batsman to make his case for a place in India's limited-overs side. However, in an interview with the TOI, Yadav was quite positive and said that he is focusing on the Ranji Trophy right now and would like to stay patient and take things as they come.

Having scored 4920 runs in 73 first-class matches and 2311 runs in 88 List A games so far in his career, Suryakumar Yadav has surely done enough to be knocking on the doors of a spot in India's white-ball squad. With him being picked for the India A games on the New Zealand tour, the ODI series against Australia could be the last chance for Kedar Jadhav to save his place in the Indian side with Yadav hot on his heels. Hopefully, hard work would prevail and based on the consistency in batting and finishing, Yadav would sooner or later get a chance to wear the national jersey.