Suryakumar Yadav is a sort of guy who just doesn’t carry any baggage with him: Rohit Sharma

The T20 World Cup 2022 has been a memorable ride so far for the Men in Blue, thanks in major part to Suryakumar Yadav. And it's not like he just emerged out of nowhere and transformed the face of the game. Yadav, popularly known as SKY, has been active in the domestic arena for a remarkably long time, but he really gained attention after a string of impressive performances over the years, particularly in the IPL.

His impressive batting performance against RCB in Abu Dhabi during the 2020 IPL caught the attention of the world, and notably, he brought that performance up on the day he was sidelined for the Australia tour. He led Mumbai Indians in an exciting chase against Virat Kohli's RCB, scoring 79 off 43 as they won. He was never overlooked again because of this performance, as he earned his India debut just six months later.

In the current scenario, he has been performing better than the senior players which include the likes of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and even Virat Kohli and the Indian skipper agrees to it. Yadav’s strike rate while batting in the middle order is arguably the best when compared to the top-order batters.

At the pre-match press conference when a reporter questioned the captain about the value of Suryakumar Yadav and how he could change the outcome of the semi-final match against England, Rohit Sharma gave a hilarious response as he said:

“He (SKY) is a sort of guy who just doesn’t carry any baggage with him. Not his suitcases, I mean he is got a lot of suitcases. Honestly speaking, he loves his shopping. But when it comes to carrying that extra pressure I don’t think he has that in him. And you can see that when he plays. And he is been playing that for a year now. I don’t know if you have heard him talk at the interviews, he bats in same fashion.”

For players, what they have done in their entire career doesn’t define them by just one knockout game: Sharma

India and England will square off for the second semi-final at the Adelaide Oval on November 10, Thursday. A win for India would mean a place in the finale of an ICC tournament after more than five years. Regarding the significance of such knockout games, Sharma stated that a poor knockout game cannot define the careers of devoted cricketers who have contributed significantly to Indian cricket for a long time.

“I think knockout games are important. Because you get to play only once and there is one opportunity to do well in that knockout game. But for players what they have done in their entire career doesn’t define them by just one knockout game. You know the entire year you work so hard and to do well in whichever format you want to play. So that one particular game is not going to decide that. I think we do understand the importance of knockout, but at the same time it is important to realise what sort of effort you put in an entire year to come to that stage. For us as a player and as a team we can pride ourselves as because we saw two of the quality teams that got knocked out,” Sharma added.