Mumbai Indians star batsman Suryakumar Yadav is all set to make his international debut in the first T20I against England at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Ahead of the opening encounter, Suryakumar has revealed how Mumbai head coach Mahela Jayawardene has helped him improve his batting game.
The right-handed batsman was in stunning form in the 2020 edition of the IPL that was held in the UAE and scored 480 runs. He continued his incredible run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and plundered 332 runs from 5 innings at an average of 66.40. Prior to this season, Suryakumar Yadav has amassed tons and tons of runs in the IPL and domestic circuit and a national call was long due.
Speaking about the complete turnaround in his game, the 30-year-old credited former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene. Yadav revealed that Jayawardene sat with him and guided him as to how he should approach his innings before, and after the Powerplay overs. Yadav added that the Sri Lankan stalwart wanted him to be smarter, and said that Jayawardene always wanted him to be a better cricketer.
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“In 2019, he sat with me and explained it to me… what I should do in the powerplay and what I should do after the powerplay. Obviously, he wanted me to be a better cricketer at that moment and contribute more by being a little more smarter. So he just sat with me and he was like it’s upon you completely. He said only one thing, whenever you’re batting after the powerplay, just try and hit a lot of gaps, take twos, run hard between wickets and the strike rate also will be amazing. So I just did the same thing,” said Yadav in a chat with The Indian Express.
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Suryakumar Yadav further highlighted how he worked on covering all the boxes in his batting to strive for more consistency as he was sure that bowlers would come up with ideas to get him out. The Mumbai stalwart will look to continue the job he has been doing so far and make a strong for himself ahead of the ICC T20I World Cup scheduled to take place later this year.
“I don’t remember there was any talk regarding offside play. Because when I opened that year, I played all around the park. So there was no talk about the offside play. But yeah, I knew I had to work a lot on my batting again because people will come up with different plans. So I had to cover all the areas or tick all the boxes, which I couldn’t do in the first year with my team,” concluded Yadav.