The backlash over playing Surykumar Yadav continues with world cup winner Kris Srikkanth latest to call out the Indian team management on their recent experiments with the batting line-up. India have tried several opening combinations in T20Is over the past few months including Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda and now Suryakumar.
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Surya, who recently scored a century while batting at no 4, has played as opener in the first two matches of the ongoing T20I series against West Indies. However, Srikkanth feels that if Surya has excelled in the middle-order and India have other options to try at the top.
“Suryakumar Yadav is a brilliant player at No.4. He should be batting at No.4 in the T20 World Cup,” the former India cricketer said on FanCode.
Srikkanth claimed that by changing his batting spot, India are spoiling Surya’s career. “So why do you want to make him open. If you want someone to open, drop Shreyas Iyer and pick Ishan Kishan instead. What I am trying to say is simple…don’t spoil the cricketer like Suryakumar Yadav. Please don’t do that. I will tell you what will, after a couple of failures he will lose his confidence. Cricket is a confidence game,” he said.
Last week, former India batter Mohammed Kaif too had expressed his confusion over playing Surya as opener.
“Suryakumar has the role of controlling the innings in the middle and adding those finishing touches. In fact, his role will remain as the No. 4 batter when Kohli and Rahul return. But Pant should have been tried. Clearly, I did not understand what happened. Ishan Kishan is also waiting,” Kaif said on FanCode.
“Whatever it was, I completely failed to understand it. You ought to have used Rishabh Pant today if you were planning to use him as the opener for a couple of games. Give him five chances at least. In addition, Rohit Sharma, the captain, and Rahul Dravid, the coach, support the players for at least 5–6 games,” he added.
In ideal circumstances, KL Rahul would have been opening the innings alongside Rohit Sharma. However, his prolonged absence seems to have pushed India into the experimentation mode.
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