India batter Suryakumar Yadav’s stock has only gone up since his debut in 2021. He has only been competing at the highest level for about a year and a half, yet he has already replaced Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan to claim the top spot among T20I batters in the ICC rankings. 37 T20Is is all it took for ‘SKY’ to reach the top.
In the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022, where most batters have struggled to get going or do so at a good strike rate, Yadav has been striking at upwards of 180 while amassing 164 runs in 4 games at an average of 54.67, almost making a mockery of the other batters.
The star batter has been a regular feature of India's playing XI at number 4, however, former New Zealand cricketer Ross Taylor thinks Suryakumar can make an even bigger impact when he moves up in the batting order.
“Four-five is the hardest place to bat in T20s,” Taylor was quoted as speaking to ICC.
“To be ranked No.1 when you're batting behind KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and (Virat) Kohli, some fantastic batters in there, and for him to just come out and play the way he does is a credit to him.
"I'm sure over time he will start batting up the order, or batting where he wants to, but for a guy batting at four, I still think that's an amazing effort,” he added.
The former cricketer also revealed his admiration for the 32-year-old’s fearless batting and confidence.
“I don't know how he does it. He comes in, he sums up the situation really well, runs well between the wickets, but he has a lot of confidence.
"He intimidates bowlers once he starts getting himself in, because it feels like he can hit the ball anywhere at the moment.”
Taylor made an effort to decipher the factors that have contributed to the success of ‘SKY’ and to determine what makes him currently stand out from other batters.
"He's able to utilize the pace, play some dinky shots, but at the same time he's got the power, he's able to hit those pockets, hit them hard,” he stated.
"There is something about watching him, you know something is going to happen within two or three balls.
"There was a lot of talk leading into (the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup), that he'd scored a lot of runs in India but could he do it away from home, and I think he's proved a lot of those people wrong.
"The big boundaries as well, he's smacking them for six on the biggest boundaries in the world, so he's silenced a lot of critics,” he explained.
A win over Bangladesh on Wednesday (November 02) has brought the Men in Blue within touching distance of the knockout stages.
They will now face Zimbabwe on Sunday (November 06) in their final Super 12 encounter.
(ICC INPUTS)
