“He’ll get one more opportunity, and that’s probably it” - Wasim Jaffer on Suryakumar Yadav’s ODI failures
Former Indian batter Wasim Jaffer reckons Suryakumar Yadav might find himself out of favour in ODIs if he fails to perform in the third game against West Indies. Jaffer added that the 32-year-old needs to change his high-risk batting approach to have a chance to succeed in the 50-over format.
Suryakumar was dismissed for 24 in the second ODI of the three-match series against West Indies in Barbados on Saturday. He was out for 19 in the opening ODI at the same venue.
The Mumbai batter has now gone 17 innings without a half-century in the ODI format. While discussing Suryakumar’s ODI struggles, Jaffer admitted that time has almost run out for the batter, telling ESPNcricinfo:
“I think he’ll get one more opportunity in the third ODI, and that’s probably it. Then KL (Rahul) and Shreyas Iyer might come in, and he’ll find it difficult to get into the side.
"The way he bats, he takes very high-risk options. He looks to hit boundaries; sometimes that’s what makes his lose his wicket."
Jaffer added that when Suryakumar’s outrageous shots come off, they look good but said that the cricketer needs to develop patience while batting in the one-day format:
"In the 50-over format, you need to take the game deep. That’s what Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and even Shikhar Dhawan did. It’s his nature to take risky options.
"He needs to change that in this format. He can’t keep looking to hit boundaries every second-third ball. We see him do that time and again - getting a start and throwing his wicket away.”
We are back in the game with no overs lost.
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Suryakumar has featured in 25 ODIs, scoring 476 runs at a rather disappointing average of 23.80.
“He lost a very good opportunity” - Jaffer on Samson
With Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma being rested for the second ODI, Sanju Samson got an opportunity to feature in the playing XI. He was sent into bat at No. 3 after the openers had added 90. However, Samson was dismissed for 9, caught at slip off a sharply spinning delivery from Yannic Cariah.
According to Jaffer, Samson’s struggles against leg-spinners is a cause for concern.
“It was a very good opportunity, and you got the start. He came in at 90/1 and played himself in. It was a very soft dismissal. It looked like he didn’t pick the leg-spin. He was shaping up to play the googly. We keep talking that in the IPL: he struggles against leg-spin and googly bowlers. Looks like it continues to be so," he said.
“When you are batting at the top of the order, you can’t be showing this kind of vulnerability against spin bowling. That question remains, and, obviously, he lost a very good opportunity,” Jaffer concluded.
Sanju Samson had a short stay in the middle.
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India collapsed from 90-0 to 181 all-out in the second ODI and ended up losing the game by six wickets.