Pakistan batsman Salman Butt believes that Suryakumar Yadav has a huge opportunity to make a mark in England if he gets a chance to play after he was handed a maiden call-up to India’s Test squad for the upcoming five-match Test series starting on August 4 at Trent Bridge.
Suryakumar seemed unstoppable since making his international debut at 30 earlier this year, hitting a fifty in debut T20I innings against England, then won the Man of the Series award in his debut ODI series in Sri Lanka followed by another fifty in the first T20I and a maiden call-up to India’s Test side.
Salman said Yadav looked a lot more mature thanks to his long experience in domestic cricket, where he has scored over 5000 first-class runs and a little less than 3000 List-A runs and if he managed to score runs in England, it will prove that he is a top-class player.
In his YouTube video, Salman said: “Suryakumar Yadav has a huge opportunity to make a mark in England if he gets an opportunity to play. People have started developing a view of him as being a classy player. If he scores in England as well, he will prove that he is a top-class player because England is a tough place to score runs.”
The opener further explained, “He has debuted at 30. The maturity that he has gained by playing years of domestic cricket is visible in his batting. There are many other talented Indian batsmen who are playing fearless cricket but Suryakumar Yadav is proving to be a lot more mature.
Maybe that is because of the amount of domestic cricket he has played. Most batsmen are at their peak at the age at which Suryakumar Yadav has made his debut.”
Praising Suryakumar for his riskless approach and calm demeanor, the 36-year-old said if he is given an opportunity to play longer innings, he will notch up big hundreds for India.
Butt signed off by saying, “The risk factor in his shots is less. The specialty of a top-class player is that he maintains a good strike rate and it doesn’t seem like he is taking too many risks to maintain it. There is a lot of calmness in Suryakumar Yadav’s batting. I would love to see him score hundreds. Of course, the T20Is are going on now. But given the kind of batsman he is, I think Suryakumar Yadav will score big hundreds. He is a special talent on display.”
