Suryakumar Yadav was all smiles after leading India to a comprehensive seven-wicket win over South Africa in the third T20I but admitted that the runs aren’t coming for him then way they usually do. At the same time though, the Indian captain feels that he is not out of form.
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“I’ve been batting beautifully in the nets. When the runs have to come, they’ll come. Not out of form, definitely out of runs,” said Suryakumar in the post-match presentation ceremony. India only had to chase a target of 118 but they took their time doing it. It was only when Shivam Dube hit a four and a six in the 16th over of their chase that they managed to get over the line. Suryakumar laboured for 11 balls and managed to score just 12 runs before falling to Lungi Ngidi.
There were some question marks over his form late last year in the few innings he played after India’s 2024 T20 World Cup win and the way he continued this year shows that the dip was no anomaly. In 18 innings that he has batted in this year, Suryakumar has scored 213 runs at a strike rate of 125.29 and average of 14.20. This is against a career strike rate of 163.60 and average of 35.67 in 92 innings.
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Suryakumar said that he was proud of how his team bounced back from the defeat they suffered in the second T20I though. “I think this sport teaches you a lot of things. How you come back into the series is more important. And we did the same thing, we wanted to go back to basics, do the same things we were doing in Cuttack, and the results were on our side,” he said.
“See, there was a lot of learning from the game we played in (New) Chandigarh. The bowlers sat together, we had a good team meeting as well,” he noted.