Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has questioned whether star India batter Suryakumar Yadav’s form is a concern ahead of the fourth T20I between India and South Africa. He also added that the Indian skipper has lacked his usual consistency this year as well. Team India will play against South Africa in the final T20I of the four-match series in Johannesburg on Friday, November 15. They have a 2-1 lead, and will hope to end an immensely successful year in the T20 format with another series win as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “Is Suryakumar Yadav’s T20I form a concern? Why are people asking the question about whether it is a problem? Let’s go through his numbers. In 2021, he had an average of 34 and a strike rate of 155. He played just 11 innings. In 2022, Suryakumar Yadav scored 1164 runs at an average of 46 and a strike rate of 187. Well played Surya.”
“In 2023, he scored 733 runs at an average of nearly 49, and there too he has a strike rate of 155. Well played Surya. However, in 2024, it’s been 17 innings, in which he has scored just 429 runs. The strike rate is still above 150 but the average has become 26.8. He has scored four half-centuries for sure but it is not the same old Surya in terms of the averages,” he shared again.
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In the same video, Aakash Chopra also added that Suryakumar Yadav performed well in IPL 2024. However, he further added that his injury-enforced absence at the start of the year was an issue as well.
“If there is a problem and if we see it in a slightly more expanded form, you will find that he played well in the IPL. Suryakumar Yadav scored 345 runs, which included a century, at an average of 34 and a strike rate of 167 in 11 innings, which is not bad in T20s. He was injured at the start and wasn’t playing. That was another problem,” he said.
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“I will not make much hue and cry about the form. He has scored slightly fewer runs. He hasn’t scored runs in this series thus far. Interestingly enough, it’s very rare that he plays an entire series and doesn’t score even one fifty. You can count those instances with the fingers on one hand. This series is one of those. He will have to change that this evening so that this question is totally negated,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
