India batter Suryakumar Yadav has taken the cricketing world by storm with his batting exploits in the shortest format of the game.
The dashing right-hander played 31 T20I innings last year, amassing 1164 runs at an average of 46.56 and a remarkable strike rate of 187.43, including two hundreds and nine half-centuries. As a result, he earned the ICC Men’s T20I Player of the Year honour for 2022.
However, Surya is entering the IPL 2023 on the back of a forgettable ODI series against Australia at home. He was dismissed for three successive golden ducks in the 50-over series, which the visitors won 2-1 last week.
Despite his poor form, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma has backed Suryakumar to deliver in the upcoming IPL season, starting March 31.
“Surya is fine. Hopefully the crowd will cheer for him and he’ll get back to business. He is probably the best T20 player in the world,” Rohit said in a pre-season press conference.
A bigger cause of concern for the MI team management will be the absence of their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who’s been out of action since September 2022 due to a recurring back injury.
“Jasprit Bumrah’s role was quite important for Mumbai Indians, it’s a big shoe to fill. Jofra was with us last season also but unfortunately, he could not play due to an injury everyone knows that he is a quality player. Also in the absence of Jasprit, several young players have a great opportunity,” Rohit said.
Among the youngsters, the MI captain has high hopes from Arjun Tendulkar, who is yet to make his IPL debut.
“Arjun Tendulkar is playing good cricket in recent times. He was injured but today he will start his bowling,” Rohit said.
MI head coach Mark Boucher also echoed Rohit and said, “Arjun has been playing good cricket for some time, he is bowling well, we are thinking that he will play in the playing XI this year.”
Boucher is also confident of Jofra Archer’s strong show in the upcoming season. “He’s been playing recently. Hopefully he can kick-start the IPL with a bang.”
Mumbai Indians will open their campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 2.
