Came into the side with clarity about my role: Suryakumar

Barbados: Harder to play shots that I am used to on slower pitches: Suryakumar

Suryakumar Yadav hadn’t had the best of Indian Premier Leagues, and his first few games at the T20 World Cup weren’t much better, but he found his stride on a tricky pitch at the Nassau County International stadium last week. 

His unbeaten 50 came off of an uncharacteristic 49 balls, but it didn’t matter given that India needed him to stabilise the knock against the United States of America. He did just that, and India came away with a seven-wicket win. 

“I knew I had to play that role for the team on that day,” said the 33-year-old during Tuesday’s press conference. “That’s my role, it’s a role that I spent a lot of my time in domestic cricket thinking about. I knew that I had to do well in that period between seven and 16 overs to make a case to get into the side.”

“I showcased that repeatedly in domestic cricket, including the IPL, to get picked for the national team. So, I came into the side knowing that that’s what my role would be. See, on some days it comes off and on others, it doesn’t, but my mindset is to keep at it every time I go out there and not worry too much about what might happen, you can’t keep thinking about failure.”

On the topic of tricky pitches, Suryakumar noted that the pitches, including the training pitches at Cantiague Park, in the US were a bit harder, but given the demands of the format and that everyone has to deal with the same set of problems, he wasn’t too worried about them. 

“These pitches here are better and we also have experience of playing here in the past so we know what to expect,” he said. “The thing is those pitches were spicy and sometimes that’s fun too. These are a bit more consistent to shotmaking might be easier, but they are slow so it will be interesting to see how we adapt.”

Suryakumar also maintained that he might not have the chance to try out his ramp shots and scoops when conditions are not conducive and don’t allow for the ball to come on the bat as evenly.  

“It’s much harder to generate force when the ball is not coming on, harder to play shots that I am used to, but that’s the challenge. I need to find new ways of scoring. That’s why I am in this team,” he said.