The Indian cricketer Suryakumar Yadav played an important role in India’s win in the first ODI of the 3-match series against Australia by playing a sensible half-century knock and with this innings, he ended his disappointing run in ODIs.
Though Suryakumar Yadav is the number one batter in T20Is, he was not able to prove himself in ODIs and the last ODI series against Australia was the lowest point in his ODI career as in that series, he got out for duck in consecutive three matches. After that series, many people started questioning his credentials and his place in the ODI team as well but skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid kept backing him and ultimately their faith in the cricketer paid off.
The first ODI between India and Australia was played at Mohali couple of days back. SKY displayed maturity and sensibility in that knock and developed a partnership with the stand-in skipper KL Rahul which helped his team in winning the match.
The former Aussie cricketer Mark Waugh was also full of praises for Suryakumar Yadav. While speaking in a show, Mark Waugh said that it was not about those three ducks, it was about people talking some weird stuff such as if he is just a T20I player or if he is really good enough to become an ODI player. Mark Waugh says that SKY is surely an ODI player because a player doesn’t lose his talent overnight and the basis of both T20Is and ODIs are quite similar.
Mark Waugh further said it was about breaking free and stopping from worrying about getting out. He adds that once the batter stops thinking about getting out, his natural instincts take control and he is fine after that.
The former Indian cricketer Abhishek Nayar was also part of the discussion. He praised Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid for supporting Suryakumar Yadav and for giving him many chances despite his poor performances which increased the confidence of SKY and he was able to bat freely.
The second ODI is being played today at Holkar stadium, Indore and batting first, India has posted a huge total of 399/5 in their 50 overs with the help of century knocks of Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill. The stand-in skipper KL Rahul played a half-century knock and Suryakumar Yadav once again shone as he played a knock of 72 runs not out. By the time this article was written, the Aussies were 56/2 and the match was suspended due to rain.
Will Australia make a comeback in the series by winning the second ODI? What do you think?