Australia’s Glenn Maxwell jokingly said that they do not have any money to bring in Suryakumar Yadav to get to play in the Big Bash League, after watching his scintillating innings in the second T20I against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui.

The no.1 T20I ranked batter finished as the third-highest scorer at the 2022 T20 World Cup with a tally of 239 in six matches at a mind-boggling strike rate of 189.68. Suryakumar was also named the Player of the Series in India’s recent T20I series win over New Zealand.

He made 111* in 51 balls with 11 fours and 7 sixes, his second T20I ton in 2022 helping India win by 65 runs, and that 1-0 lead helped the Men in Blue win the series in the end after the third and final match was tied via DLS method due to rain.

Australian star Glenn Maxwell lauded the effort by Suryakumar on ‘The Grade Cricketer’ podcast:

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"I didn't know the game was on. But I later checked the scorecard and sent the picture of that to Finchy (Aaron Finch) and said, 'What is going on here? He is batting on a completely different planet! Look at everyone else's scores and look at this bloke scoring 111 off 50."

"I watched the full replay of the innings the next day and the embarrassing thing is that he is so much better than everyone else. It's almost hard to watch. No one we have got is close to that,” he added.

When asked jokingly, whether Suryakumar might get a Big Bash League contract in the future, Maxwell said: "We don't have enough money. There is no chance. We will have to sack every player and the sack every contracted player of Cricket Australia(laughs)."

Suryakumar will be in action when India takes on New Zealand in the ODI series beginning on November 25.