When men like Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting praise a batter, he has to be special. The West Indies legend was impressed by Suryakumar Yadav quite some time before he made his international debut.
“Has he played for India?” Lara asked his colleagues in the commentary box during the 2019 IPL. Ponting sees a bit of A.B. de Villiers in Suryakumar. He said as much a few weeks ago, while talking of batters of the 360-degree kind. It is not just the way Suryakumar bats that makes him stand out. It is also the way he responds to different situations.
On Wednesday at the Greenfield Stadium here against South Africa in the first T20I, he came in after India recorded its lowest PowerPlay score. Granted that the target was just 107, but the wicket wasn’t easy to bat on, and there was enough for the bowlers, particularly South Africa’s world-class pace attack.
