'His approach was phenomenal' - KL Rahul heaps praises on Suryakumar Yadav

India went 1-0 up in the three-match T20I series against South Africa after a splendid performance with both bat and ball at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. While Arshdeep Singh proved to be the star with the ball, it was yet again Suryakumar Yadav who flew high colours with the bat with an unbeaten half-century.  

KL Rahul, who paced a slow and important innings of 56-ball 51, hailed Suryakumar's aggressive approach when the ball was doing a lot. The sensational middle-order batter came in at 17 for 2, and wasn’t afraid to play his shots which did help a lot in the run chase of 107. Suryakumar remained unbeaten on 50 off 33 balls with five fours and three sixes and Rahul lauded his teammate after the game.  

Suryakumar wanted to play his shots and gets some runs: KL Rahul 

Rahul felt that it wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on and was impressed with Suryakumar Yadav coming out with an aggressive mindset. He went on to hail the shots played by the 32-year-old in his superlative knock and added that it helped him to pace his innings. The vice-captain finally concluded that the practice session had provided enough experience for him to assess the conditions.  

“This was hard work. Was unbelievable for Surya to come out and play the shots. We saw how the ball was flying and for Surya to come out with that approach was phenomenal. After the first ball, he wanted to be aggressive and take on the bowler. He said he wanted to play his shots and gets some runs. That helped me to take my time and play one end," Rahul told in the post-match conference. 

“We did practice here yesterday, and there was a humbling experience as well. So we came in prepared for a scrap. It was not an easy wicket. I wanted to be challenged and wanted to do the job for the team,” he added.