Come for Kohli, stay there for Suryakumar Yadav

Has there ever been a better T20 batter than Suryakumar Yadav?

It is a question befitting one of the most talented and natural hitters in cricket history, for he has crossed all intended or unintended barriers to become a player the world stops to watch.

Nobody comes close to the body of work that SKY has managed in the sport's shortest format and, more pertinently, with the kind of consistency he has maintained over the years.

Since making his T20I debut in March 2021 against England, in an era unscrupulously dominated by the discourse of Covid-19, the Mumbaikar has amassed 2141 runs at an average of 45.55 and at a strike rate of 171.6. 60 T20Is later, SKY already has four centuries and 17 half-centuries to become a force of nature. In the process, he has also led India and become an integral part of the ODI side too.

Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam—two batters who have scored more T20I runs than SKY in the same timeframe—have played nine and 12 games more, respectively, yet their strike rates have been 50 basis points lower than the Indian No.4 batter.

That goes on to tell you why India feared the worst when SKY was sidelined due to an ankle injury in December 2023. He has duly returned after surgery and marked it with a flawless century against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2024.

All of that is true, but how will the cricket world perceive his talent if he goes down without a World Cup trophy to his name?

For all the focus on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, it must be remembered that SKY is already 33. Given what world-class bowling does to batters’ eyesight and reflexes in the 30s, he is surely not getting any younger. While another half a decade of madness can genuinely be expected from him, at the peak of his prowess, the T20 World Cup 2024 is his best opportunity to make things count and help India to their second trophy.

Virat Kohli has always been India’s biggest trump card in the ICC T20 World Cups, averaging an inhuman 81.5 and is the only batter to be the highest run-getter in multiple T20 World Cups. But his superhuman ability has been let down by his lagging teammates over the years. Be it his magic in 2016 or 2022, there have always been batting collapses that has surrounded him. 

Even in the last two World Cups, despite the presence of SKY in the batting order, India found it wanting to get off the block - a manifestation of which we saw in the eventual result. When India needed SKY to step up the most, he was largely silent - be it the twin encounters against Pakistan in 2021 and 2022 or in the semi-final against England in 2022. In these three games, SKY managed a mediocre 40 runs in total. He certainly will have a point to prove in the upcoming edition.

India will also be wary of his waning prowess against spinners lately. He definitely has all the shots in the books to dictate the course, but in the IPL 2024, his strike rate of 127.12 against slower bowlers was strangely anachronistic. 

While he had a boundary percentage of 79.25% against pacers, it dropped down to 50.66% against spinners. With Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma not being as proficient against spin, Yadav’s inability to dash off against slower bowlers could be a strategy for the opposition. 

Yet, SKY is SKY.

He is perhaps the most complete T20 batter to have graced the game – with genuine apologies to AB de Villiers – and he’ll find a way to make history a simple blip in the narrative. The baton has passed and now, it is onto him to land the sucker punch.

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