India surprised many when they sent Suryakumar Yadav to open the innings instead of Rishabh Pant in the two T20Is.
Former cricketer Kris Srikkanth has said that by making Suryakumar Yadav open the innings, Team India will spoil him as his confidence will also go down after a couple of failures.
The T20 World Cup 2022 is approaching soon and as mentioned by skipper Rohit Sharma earlier, India are trying quite a few things before they finalize the squad for the marquee tournament.
In the ongoing T20I series against West Indies, the Indian team has made quite a few experiments. One among them has been opening the batting with Suryakumar.
When KL Rahul was ruled out of the series, it was Rishabh Pant, who was expected to open the innings but management surprised many when Suryakumar came out to bat alongside Rohit.
This experiment has failed so far as Suryakumar registered low scores in both games. In the series opener, he scored 16-ball 24 and managed only 11 off 6 in the second match.
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Many have raised concerns over India’s move as they feel that management should continue batting Suryakumar at 4 and let him settle at that position.
In an interaction on Fan Code, Srikkanth lashed out at team management for making Suryakumar open the innings. He said that the right-hander should bat at No.4 and they shouldn’t spoil a cricketer like him.
“Suryakumar Yadav is a brilliant player at No.4. He should be batting at No.4 in the T20 World Cup. So why do you want to make him open. If you want someone to open, drop Shreyas Iyer and pick Ishan Kishan instead.
“What I am trying to say is simple...don't spoil the cricketer like Suryakumar Yadav. Please don't do that. I will tell you what will, after a couple of failures he will lose his confidence. Cricket is a confidence game,” Srikkanth said.
There has been no official statement about why India have opted to open with Suryakumar. With three T20Is still remaining, the Rohit Sharma-led side may be tempted to open with Pant again. But they also can give the Mumbaikar the long run in the series.
(Fan code inputs)