Legendary Indian cricketer, Sunil Gavaskar has asserted that Suryakumar Yadav should forget the put behind the ODI series disappointment against Australia and focus on scoring big runs in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 to regain his confidence in the World Cup year. Gavaskar played down concerns over the golden ducks of Suryakumar Yadav in the ODI series defeat to Australia, saying it can happen to the best of the batters.
Suryakumar Yadav’s place in the ODI side has now come under immense criticism after his horror run against Australia in the 3-match ODI series. Suryakumar became the first batter to witness three back-to-back golden ducks in an ODI series. He got out LBW to Mitchell Starc in the first couple of two ODIs and they were quite similar as well. On Wednesday, in the series decider, Suryakumar was demoted to No. 7 in India’s chase of 270.
India needed Suryakumar Yadav to hang in after Australia got the big wicket of Virat Kohli, who was the fifty maker in the game. However, Suryakumar was out bowled by left-arm spinner Ashton Agar in the very next delivery. Despite a fighting 40 from Hardik Pandya, India failed to chase the total down, succumbing to their first ODI series defeat at home since March 2019.
During a recent chat on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar said, “Well, he was out first-ball 3 times. It’s very difficult to say what is going wrong. Yes, there were two good deliveries that Mitchell Starc bowled in the first 2 matches. Yes, he might have been a little too anxious.”
Sunil Gavaskar said whether or not Suryakumar retains his place in the ODI side will depend on how he performs in the IPL for Mumbai Indians. Suryakumar has been in stunning form in T20I cricket, scoring more than 1000 runs in 2022. However, Suryakumar has been struggling to crack the ODI code. In 23 ODIs, he has scored just 433 runs at an average of just 24. When asked if there was any advice that he would give Suryakumar, Gavaskar urged the MI batter to put it behind and look forward to the IPL.
Explaining the same, Sunil Gavaskar said, “I mean, it depends on the kind of form that he shows in the IPL. There are few ODI matches as well in the West Indies etc. Depending on all those factors, you want to look at his place in the team. Nothing, nothing (what would he tell Surya?). “He has just got to understand that this can happen to the best of players and it has happened to the best of players. So I think, all he has got to do now is focus… forget these 3 matches and focus on the IPL, get runs over there. Once he gets runs in the IPL, he will come back confident for the next one-day game.”
In the absence of injured Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, India have been backing Suryakumar Yadav for the middle-order role in ODIs in the lead-up to the World Cup. Captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid have been supportive of the 32-year-old, who is likely to get a longer rope in the 50-over format of the game.
