Team India’s unbeaten World Cup 2023 campaign on Saturday (November 4) received a massive jolt as ankle injury ruled Hardik Pandya out of the remainder of the tournament.
Pandya’s absence has opened up the doors for middle-order batter Suryakumar Yadav, who has featured in the last three games against New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka.
While Surya was run out for 2 against the Kiwis in Dharamsala, he played a crucial knock of 49 in 47 balls on a tough wicket versus England in Lucknow. The dashing right-hander was dismissed for 12 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai after he started his innings with a couple of sumptuous straight drives.
Ahead of India’s next match against South Africa in Kolkata on November 5, head coach Rahul Dravid praised Suryakumar Yadav’s progress in ODIs and backed him to do well in the remainder of the World Cup campaign.
"You've got to keep evolving. You've got to keep getting better. And the more kinds of situations he (Surya) finds himself in and he comes out of it, like he did really well against England, the better he's going to get at it," Dravid said in the the pre-match press conference.
In particular, Dravid is impressed with Surya’s areas of scoring. "Yes, I mean, there are just in terms of just the areas in which he scores in T20 cricket and how quickly he has to go in T20 cricket. He's obviously been exceptional at that."
"And it's good to see that in one-day cricket, he's also realising that maybe at times you can give yourself a little bit more time to settle in. And then you know how dangerous he can be at the death."
According to Dravid, nearly 10 years of domestic cricket and the experience of 82 first-class games have really helped Surya.
"I think he has that experience because he's played so much of domestic cricket. He's been around for the last 10 years. So, I think, we're sort of relying a lot also on his experience to be able to read a situation really well."
"Like against England, when we have wickets down, then probably you need him to play a slightly different kind of role for a while and then look to go hard at the end."
In Hardik’s absence, Surya and Jadeja are the two players who are expected to be the X-factors in the later stages of the innings.
"It's nice to have that experience of people like him and Jadeja at the back-end just to be able to read that situation and play according to the situation. And that's really important in one-day cricket.
"T20 cricket sometimes, you know, you just have to play in one way. One day, sometimes lower down the order you can actually, you need to be able to be smart enough to read a game and read a situation."
(With PTI Inputs)
