Suryakumar Yadav is India's best T20I batter, and he must bat in his best position
Suryakumar Yadav is one of the premier batters in T20 cricket, and of that, there is little doubt. He is also the greatest Indian batter to have ever played T20I cricket. And this is not just based on perception or how he makes jaws drop every time he bats. The numbers he has mustered, since making his T20I debut against England in 2021, only strengthen this argument.
A strike rate over 170, an average in excess of 45, across 50 innings, which also includes three sensational hundreds, is unheard of. This article, though, is not about how Suryakumar sits on a pedestal higher than anyone else in the world at the moment. Instead, it is about how India, as they embark on this new era and prepare to win the T20 World Cup – a title they last won in 2007 – can best utilize the mercurial batter.
For much of his India career, Suryakumar has batted at No. 4, which is largely down to India having to accommodate Virat Kohli, who at this stage of his career, seems best suited to bat in the top three. Suryakumar, because of how dextrous he is, has had to give up the spot that catapulted him into the national limelight, and the slot from where he scored a fifty in his debut T20I innings.
Such is the Mumbai Indians star’s brilliance, though, that he has not missed a beat at No. 4. In fact, as things stand, his stats are better at that position than at No. 3, perhaps even indicating that he should continue batting there and be India’s T20I lynchpin.
While there is not a lot of reason to doubt that thought process, there are a few intangibles involved – intangibles that India should look at and deploy the right-handed batter at No. 3 – as the T20 World Cup fast approaches.
Suryakumar Yadav scored two fifties in his last two innings in the T20I series against WI
The recent series against the West Indies was a clear indicator of the damage he could cause when batting one-down. With the series on the line in Guyana, India had lost an early wicket in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill was also struggling. Instead of dropping anchor, Suryakumar walked out, counter-attacked, and knocked the stuffing out of the West Indian bowling attack.
He ransacked 36 runs inside the powerplay, off just 18 balls and brought the required run rate down to 7.14, having started out at 8. Even if Suryakumar had gotten out the next ball, he had given his middle order the cushion and the luxury to get their eye in, especially against spin, before teeing off.
That is particularly pertinent because Hardik Pandya, having started out as a buccaneering spin-bowling hitter, has not gotten going against that type of bowling often. Sanju Samson, who featured in the middle order throughout the series, is susceptible to wrist spin and would rather face pace.
Tilak Varma has the game to attack pace and spin but seems to have a slightly greater gamut of strokes against the former. Even Ravindra Jadeja, who has morphed into a top-class finisher, fancies pace when starting out.
What links these two things together is how teams now look to tie Suryakumar down by bowling left-arm spin at him. If he were to bat at No. 3, there are high chances that the left-arm spinner will bowl a chunk of his overs at him, making the task of those around him easier because they might not have to face a left-arm spinner altogether.
The other important bit is that Suryakumar is no one-trick pony. Far from it. In the fifth T20I, as the rest of the Indian batters struggled, he took it upon himself to bat deep. He might have even gotten India to a higher total had Pandya not scratched around in the middle overs.
The main difference, thus, is that when he is batting at No. 3, he can set up the game he wants, rather than just reacting to what the top order has done. And because of the tempo that he bats at, more often than not, India will have the game set up very positively, and might not have to play catch-up.
Suryakumar, apart from the extraordinary ability he has, also has an aura about him now. Whenever he walks out to bat, he is the batter the opposition wants to get rid of as soon as possible. In that pursuit, they regularly bowl their best bowlers.
When batting at No. 4, if the start has not been good, teams will be able to attack Suryakumar and India in the middle overs. But if he is batting at 3, India will only be a wicket down, and sides will be forced to bowl their best bowlers early. If Suryakumar can take them down (or play them out), they might be short of options later in the innings, which the others can cash in on – something Tilak did beautifully in the third T20I in Guyana.
Of course, a lot of this, on reading, might seem conjecture. Suryakumar, though, did launch himself into the Indian fan’s imagination by batting at No. 3 for the Mumbai Indians.
Since the semi-final drubbing against England at Adelaide in November 2022, he has batted 12 times in T20I cricket for India, featuring at No. 3 on seven occasions. He currently averages close to 50 and strikes at more than 160, which is marginally more than what he strikes at when batting a position lower.
So, theory and recent evidence suggest that Suryakumar must be batting at No. 3, come what may. And that includes when India’s marquee stars return (read KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Kohli). Of course, they have more experience and might get the benefit of seniority, and Suryakumar, being the ultimate team man, will not mind sacrificing his usual spot.
But Suryakumar is India’s best T20I batter (without a shadow of a doubt), and it is high time the team is created to make the most of his abilities, and molded in a way that those around him can benefit from his aura.
Towards the end of the T20I series against the West Indies, that started taking shape, and with the T20 World Cup slated to be held on those shores in less than a year, that is a template India would do well to follow.