To say that Suryakumar Yadav was the find of 2022 would be an insult to reporters who have followed his career from his maidan days and also undermine his impact on Indian cricket.
The year gone by didn’t just give Team India a reliable middle-order batsman with skills to find gaps even in a field full of 22 fielders, but got it initiated to a brand of cricket that promises to change their fortunes.
With 2023 expected to be the big year for Rohit Sharma and Co, Surya showed that by being true to one’s core, showing the courage to think on his feet, disregarding match situations, one can increase the strike rate, baffle opponents and also win more often.
Not to be confused with the in-vogue Baz-ball – the Brendon McCullum-inspired English approach of taking the attack to the opposition – Surya-ball is about marrying bold improvisations to the natural style of play and not letting the occasion overwhelm you.
India’s Suryakumar Yadav celebrates after scoring a century . (AP)
Surya’s batting is about treating a World Cup game at a jam-packed MCG, like it’s a Sunday tennis ball underarm hustle in the building compound with a few uncles and aunties watching the action from their balconies.
Pardon the football hang-over, but Surya is a Brazilian in Indian blues. Not just the ink on his body, the stamp on his soul is of those Jogo Bonito faithfuls in canary yelllow jerseys. Surya seems to seek inner joy through cricket. Like those indulgent dribblers with the obsession of going past the goalkeeper, and not shooting past him; Surya is likely to prefer a reverse sweep past point over a conventional square-cut.
Normal is boring for those for whom sport is a pursuit of these pure pleasures.
Surya’s celebrations are also mundane, he seems to be in a rush to take the strike again. His brattish mind constantly ticking to second-guess the bowler, and to come up with the most outlandish stroke to trick rivals.
Suryakumar Yadav bats during the T20 cricket international between India and New Zealand at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui. (AP)
India’s newest batting star’s fearlessness in unfurling his innovations has provided a new template to a team that has famously gotten sucked in a hole when getting over-protective in knock-out games.
Go back to every heart-breaking loss in recent ICC events when India ended up chasing modest scores and common to most dismissals is the aversion to taking risks.
Every collapse has a hackneyed theme. The top-order batsmen have been guilty of tentative footwork and unsure pokes at the ball when put under the pump in high-pressure games. Wicket-keepers and slips of opponents – for those tentative edges – have been in business in several of India’s botched-up chases.
India’s Suryakumar Yadav bats during the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Zimbabwe in Melbourne, Australia. (AP)
Watch opener KL Rahul’s dismissal, in the game’s second over, during this year’s World T20, India’s latest ICC event disaster. A sharp ball from English speedster Chris Woakes taking the edge of Rahul’s iffy push at the ball. Like many before him, play or leave, he wasn’t sure. Eventually, he settled for play, but it looked like an afterthought. The classic dilemma of a clouded mind.
Surya too played that game, he too didn’t deliver. But his approach was refreshing, it was certainly more promising than the meek surrender of those overcome by the fear of failure.
From the very first ball that Surya faced in the semi-final against England, there was a purpose in his play. Importantly, he played like he always does. He was no lily-livered imposter.
Unlike most Indian players, Surya brings to the field his beaming smile and a welcoming casualness. He doesn’t look wound up. His body is loose, it doesn’t look like his shoulders are burdened with a load he is finding too heavy. In games when he gets out, he looks disappointed but not crestfallen. He doesn’t drag his feet, the walk is brisk.
India’s Suryakumar Yadav bats during the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Zimbabwe in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
He takes a quick look at his bat as if to say, ‘Bhai, not our day today’. At times he stares at the sky, as if acknowledging that batsmen have more days of failure than success. By the time he crosses the boundary rope, he seems to have moved on.
In tournament play, India needs such players – those who can treat success and failure the same and have the ability to delete the past and look ahead.
Surya’s philosophical attitude towards the game of uncertainty has a lot to do with the hard yards he has put in since the time he made his Ranji debut in 2010. Barely out of teens, he got the cherished Mumbai cap and was soon to be labeled as the city’s Next Big Batsman.
It took him a decade to reach the Indian dressing room. He was told that the national team was a step away so many times that he stopped believing in the hype around him. After his solid first-class grounding while enduring the anonymity of domestic cricket – he has scored 14 hundreds; it was IPL that made Suryakumar Yadav the SKY of today.
He is no freak or a flash in the pan batsman that one sees so often in franchise leagues. Surya has science to his batting. But being Surya doesn’t mean trying to ape his strokes, try dragging balls pitched way outside off-stump and scoop them over fine leg fence. It is about treating every ball on merit and not being overly respectful to bowlers. It is also about being daring to dream and treating sport like it should be.
India’s Top 3 can learn a lot from No.4. Like Surya, they shouldn’t start sweeping the first ball they face or try his on-the-up audacious lift over covers. They should learn the fine balance between risk and reward from him. They should know that being ultra-cautious has consequences. They need to understand that the risk of being over-protective of their wicket is far more than being their normal self. By curtailing their attacking style of play, they are negating the hours they spent hitting those big strokes at nets.
They also need to learn something else. Rohit should grimace less, Virat can be more relaxed and KL Rahul shouldn’t take himself so seriously. They should be beaming like Surya, try and rediscover the joy of playing the sport they fell in love with, as kids.
