Time for Surya to rise & shine as India aim to bag T20 series
Rajkot: India captain Suryakumar Yadav will be expected to get back to his belligerent best after a prolonged lean run when his team takes on a struggling England in the third T20 International, aiming for a series-sealing win here on Tuesday.
Since Suryakumar took over as captain last year, India have hardly put a wrong foot but his own form has dipped. The year gone by was the least productive for arguably the world’s best T20 batter as he totalled 429 runs in 17 innings at an average of 26.81.
Suryakumar averaged close to 35 in 2021, his first year in international cricket, before raising it to 45-plus in the following two years.
The 34-year-old from Mumbai is yet to fire in the five-match series against England and has a point to prove following his exclusion from the ODI Champions Trophy squad.
Though he is India’s very own ‘Mr 360’, Suryakumar is at his finest when he is toying with the opposition attack with runs behind the wicket.
He perished while attempting his signature pick-up shot on a slower ball in the series-opener before playing one on to his stump in the last game.
Tilak Varma’s individual brilliance got India over the line in Chennai but besides Suryakumar’s lack of runs, Sanju Samson’s short ball shortcomings were highlighted.
‘Unworried about runs’
The England bowling attack has been told not to worry about leaking runs and rather just focus on taking wickets against an ultra-aggressive Indian batting unit, senior pacer Mark Wood said on Monday.
Wood, who is in the middle of his first international commitment since July, has bowled decently in the series thus far. Fellow pacer Jofra Archer, however, conceded as many as 60 runs in four overs in the previous game in Chennai with Varma taking him to the cleaners.
“We’ll just be trying to take wickets. I don’t think (Brendon) McCullum wants us to worry about runs too much, he’s all about how can we impact the game that way,” Wood said on the eve of the third T20I.
“We bowled well in the last game as a group. With the target they were chasing (167), we were always looking for that attacking option of taking wickets. Some might have gone for a few runs at times but I also felt what was going to win us the game was trying to bowl them out.”
England have struggled against the Indian spinners while the pace group led by Wood has posed a few challenges for the host team’s batters. “Speaking of pace against spin, I still think we’ve got one of the best spinners in the world in Adil Rashid, he’s a huge weapon for us. He’s a vital part,” he said.
