"Me and my wife Devisha sat down and decided - let's do some smart work" - Suryakumar Yadav on rebuilding his approach after the 2017-18 season
Team India batter Suryakumar Yadav recalled how he revisited his entire approach and outlook ahead of the 2017-18 season. He made a conscious effort to improve in every aspect to build his way to a career in national colors.
The Mumbai-born batter was already a huge prospect on the domestic circuit, having made his first-class debut at the age of 20. However, it took him 10 long years to bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket, despite his exploits in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Suryakumar's formative years in the cash-rich league were not too fruitful. He was dismissed for a duck on his debut for the Mumbai Indians (MI) before switching to the Gautam Gambhir-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). While he showed immense potential during the stint, he had to bat in the lower-middle order due to KKR's stacked batting unit at that point in time.
4000 first-class runs for Suryakumar Yadav. Since his debut in Dec 2010, no Mumbai player has scored more than him; Nayar 3264 is second.
Recounting how he and his partner decided to devise a concrete plan to get the most out of him, Suryakumar said in the latest edition of the Cricket Monthly:
"After 2017-18, I still remember, me and my wife, Devisha, sat down and decided, let's do some smart work from here on. You have worked hard, you have come this far, let's do something else and we will see what happens. I started training in a different way."
The 2018 IPL season was a turning point for Suryakumar. Batting in the top order after returning to MI, he amassed 512 runs at a strike rate of 133, and it remains his best-ever IPL campaign.
"So consistency came with that and finally I broke the door" - Suryakumar Yadav
Despite his landmark IPL campaign in 2018, Suryakumar still had to wait around three more years to feature for Team India.
He grew from strength to strength for the Mumbai Indians during the time frame and eventually let his performances do the talking.
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Noting that the effort to reprogram his methods paid dividends in the end, the Mumbai-born player said:
"After 2018 there was a lot of quality in my training, diet, net sessions and everything, which helped me really well. And then it was a complete build-up, runs coming in all formats, in the IPL as well. So consistency came with that and finally I broke the door."
He has been one of Team India's most consistent performers since making his debut in 2021. He is an active member of the Men in Blue in both white-ball formats.
Was the 2018 IPL season a turning point for the batter's Team India ambitions? Let us know what you think.