“Honestly, I did not understand that” - Gautam Gambhir perplexed over move to demote Suryakumar Yadav to No. 7 in 2023 World Cup final
Former opener Gautam Gambhir expressed surprise over the Indian management’s decision to demote Suryakumar Yadav to No. 7 in the 2023 World Cup final against Australia. Gambhir opined that if the think tank did not have faith in him as a No. 6 batter, they might as well have picked someone else for the spot.
India promoted Ravindra Jadeja to No. 6 in the 2023 World Cup final against Australia ahead of Suryakumar. The move did not pay dividends as Jadeja was dismissed for 9 off 22 balls, while the latter scored 18 off 28.
The Men in Blue were held to 240 after being sent into bat and Australia chased the target in 43 overs, with six wickets in hand, courtesy of a brilliant Travis Head ton.
In an interaction with Sportskeeda, Gambhir questioned the logic behind Jadeja and Suryakumar being made to swap their batting positions.
“Honestly, I did not watch him [Suryakumar] but. However, demoting him to number seven was not the right call. Honestly, I did not understand that,” he said.
According to the former India opener, India could have sent in Suryakumar to accelerate the scoring after Virat Kohli’s dismissal since KL Rahul was holding end up.
“KL Rahul was batting at a particular tempo after Virat got out. So it makes even more sense to send Suryakumar Yadav in and tell him to play aggressive cricket. Play your natural game because Ravindra Jadeja is there to follow you,” Gambhir opined.
While a lot of critics were unimpressed with Suryakumar’s batting effort in the final, the former cricketer pointed out that his mindset was defensive since he only had the tail left after him.
“Imagine the player’s mindset as well. It’s very easy for any expert to say that Suryakumar Yadav struggled. But his mindset was that if he got dismissed, after him, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav were left. If he knew that Jadeja was to follow him, his mindset would have been different. You are playing a pure batter. If you are not confident that he can bat at the No. 6, you might as well have picked someone else,” the 42-year-old explained.
Suryakumar managed only one four in his innings before gloving a slow bouncer from Josh Hazlewood to the keeper.
“He was playing as a pure batter” - Wasim Akram on Suryakumar’s demotion
Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram shared similar views to Gambhir on India’s decision to hold back Suryakumar.
The fast bowling legend commented:
“He was playing as a pure batter. If four overs were left and there was Hardik, you could have sent him in. I would have understood that. But here, so many overs were left.”
Akram, however, credited Australia for doing their homework and not giving the hard-hitting Indian batter any chance to free his arms.
“Credit should be given to the Australian captain as well. If you watched the game, 80-90 percent they bowled slow ball bouncers to Suryakumar Yadav and third man and fine leg were very fine for him. They had planned everything,” Akram concluded.
Suryakumar had a disappointing 2023 World Cup campaign, scoring 106 runs in seven innings at an average of 17.66.