Suryakumar Yadav of Mumbai Indians had impressed one and all during the IPL 2020 as he scored 480 runs in MI’s fifth title win in UAE. This was another brilliant outing for the Mumbai batsman, as he has kept others on their toes with runs flowing from his bat.
There was much hullabaloo after Suryakumar was not picked for any of the limited-overs formats for India’s tour of Australia when the majority of cricket experts and fans believed he was ready for his debut in international cricket.
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This even led to New Zealand’s Scott Styris tweeting that Surya might need to move out of India if he wanted to play international cricket, hinting him to come and play for New Zealand.
However, this was taken a bit seriously by former Pakistani player Danish Kaneria as he used this as an example to slam the Pakistan Cricket Board after opener Sami Aslam decided to move on and sign with the USA’s Major League Cricket, ending his international and Pakistan career in the process.
The 24-year-old opener who played 13 Tests and 4 ODIs for Pakistan, last played for his country in 2017. Considered one of the brightest batsmen in Pakistan, Aslam was not given ample opportunities to come back into the team.
“He (Sami Aslam) was a consistent player. There’s been an injustice done with him. He never got the chances that people like Shan Masood, Imam-Ul-Haq did,” Kaneria said in his video, pointing out rampant nepotism in Pakistan cricket.
He then gave the example of Suryakumar Yadav and said, “It is unfortunate that PCB behaves in such a way that players need to leave their homes. India’s Suryakumar Yadav got an offer from Scott Styris to play for New Zealand, but his franchise has stood by him, the BCCI has stood by him, so he will not leave India.”
Kaneria also added that he had himself received ‘offers’ from two other countries while he had still been playing for Pakistan but that he had rejected these ‘offers’. “Looking back, I should have gone to another country, at least their cricket board would have supported me,” he said.
