[Watch] Suryakumar Yadav hits a goal with Kuldeep Yadav as goalkeeper; celebrates it with a special gesture
Team India batter Suryakumar Yadav and his teammate Kuldeep Yadav recently played football together during their off-time in New York. The duo are with the Indian squad in the USA for the ongoing 2024 T20 World Cup.
The tournament commenced last week and will go on till the end of this month in the USA and West Indies. Men in Blue played their first match of the World Cup against Ireland this Wednesday. It was a one-sided contest as the Rohit Sharma-led side dominated across all departments and kicked off their campaign with a thumping eight-wicket victory.
Suryakumar Yadav didn't do much with the bat in the contest as he perished for 2 (4) in the final stages, trying to complete it quickly with big hits. Meanwhile, Kuldeep Yadav was benched for the game. The team management opted to go with all-rounder Axar Patel to add depth to the batting line-up on a tricky surface.
Suryakumar shared a video on his official Instagram handle on Friday to give fans a glimpse of the fun time with Kuldeep Yadav. In it, Surya could be seen hitting a wonderful goal, with Kuldeep playing the goalkeeper's role, failing to stop the ball. He captioned the post:
"Ye kis line mein aa gaye aap, @kuldeep_18 ? 😂"
You can watch the video below:
"One regret I have in my seven years of captaincy"- Gautam Gambhir on Suryakumar Yadav's role in KKR side during his captaincy
Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir recently opened up about one of his regrets from playing days while leading the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team.
He revealed that they couldn't utilize Suryakumar Yadav well during his reign as captain due to team composition and balance issues, which ended up as a regret. Gambhir said on Sportskeeda's SK Match Ki Baat:
“A leader's role is to identify the best potential and show it to the world. If there is one regret I have in my seven years of captaincy is that me and as a team never managed to use Suryakumar Yadav to the best of his potential. The reason was down to combinations. You can only play one player at No. 3."
Shedding light on the team management's thought process those days, Gambhir continued:
"And as a leader, you have to think about the other 10 players in the XI as well. He would have been way more effective at No. 3, but was equally good at No. 7. Whether you played him at No. 6 or 7 or benched him, he was always smiling and always ready to perform for the team. That’s why we appointed him as the vice-captain."
Between 2014 and 2017, Suryakumar played 54 games for KKR and scored 608 runs at an average of 22.52 and a strike rate of 131.89. He batted mostly at No. 6 or 7 positions in the line-up. He moved to Mumbai Indians (MI) later and realized his true potential.