Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg said that Mumbai Indians (MI) must select swashbuckling batter Suryakumar Yadav as their first-choice retention before the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction. They will have a headache while deciding their retention due to the problem of plenty as well.
He said in a video shared on his YouTube channel: “He’s able to hit sixes in all parts of the ground and he just sets himself up so beautifully. That’s why I think Mumbai Indians will have to look at keeping him as their number one player rather than Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya because he just blows opposition teams away.”
In the same video, Brad Hogg also added that Suryakumar Yadav’s leadership skills developed while playing for Mumbai Indians. He also added that that dynamic batter was more a follower than a leader during his time with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as well.
He again shared, “He has really shown that he is a true leader. When I played with him at Kolkata Knight Riders, I just thought he was more of a follower there. I didn’t see the leadership side of it there, but when I went and did a bit of coaching at Mumbai Indians, there was a slight change. You could see that he felt part of the team and he was starting to think he was a leader. He was one of the experienced players in the team, he was taking youngsters under the wing.”
However, Brad Hogg also stated that he loves the way Hardik has accepted Suryakumar Yadav as the captain.
“I love the way he’s (Hardik) accepted Suryakumar Yadav as the captain of this Indian team, but it’s also helped his game as well. He’s really starting to expand with the bat as well, showed his true form. He struggled a little bit through the last IPL, and we all know why, because there was a lot of pressure on him moving from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians, but he’s just shown his true class here. If you’re going to be a dominant team in T20Is, you got to have your medium-pace all-rounders, and that’s what Hardik brings. Even though he is a little bit more expensive than your conventional bowler, he still adds depth to your batting,” he concluded.
