An interview with Suryakumar Yadav

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In terms of form, Suryakumar Yadav is probably the best T20 batsman in cricket at the moment. He is second in the ICC T20I ratings, a few points behind Pakistan opener Mohammad Rizwan. Suryakumar hits all around the ground, producing uppercuts, ramps, inside-out drives, lofts, scoops, pulls, sweeps and reverse sweeps. In this interview he candidly talks about his journey in his sport.

Do you also remember the MCA U-16 match at Cross Maidan in Mumbai where you impressed selectors by hitting some 140 off 40 balls? Your first coach, Ashok Aswalkar, told us about how one of the Mumbai junior selectors said to you: "Tum itna lamba lamba kaise maarta hai?" [How do you hit it so far]?

Haha. It was a league game and it was about to get over, it was like a dead rubber. I asked the captain, "Can bat I bat No. 3?" And he's like, "Okay, enjoy." And I just went out there and enjoyed myself. I made full use of the short boundary and with those Tugite balls they had at that time, I just kept batting and kept enjoying what I was doing. One of the selectors came and said, "How can you hit such long boundaries in an age-group match? I said "Yehi hai, sir, dekh lo bas" [That's what it is].

Do you remember where that bat is now?

"I think of playing two, three strokes before the ball gets delivered. If the bowler bowls here, I will play this shot, if he bowls there, I will play this shot"
I still have it. I still have the three-four bats which I used to play with in U-15, U-17. Those were bats which were gifted to me by my coach at that time and they are all broken now but I still have them.