We would love to see ten players in India like Suryakumar Yadav: Hrishikesh Kanitkar

Former India middle-order batter and the incumbent India U19 head coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar has heaped praise on the current number one ranked T20I batter in the world Suryakumar Yadav saying that he deserves to be an inspiration for many batters across the globe. The 32-year-old Mumbai batter has been in splendid form for quite some time now.

Suryakumar has been scoring runs consistently for India in the last few months and was batting on 34* off 25 balls in the second One Day International against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Sunday, November 27 before the game was called off due to rain.

The Mumbai cricketer has also registered two overseas centuries to his name in the shortest format this year. While the first one was scored against England in July, the recent one came against the Kiwis in the second T20I at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui.

Suryakumar Yadav is an exception: Hrishikesh Kanitkar

“We would love to see ten players in India like Suryakumar. But I don’t think you can make somebody like that as he is an exception; what he does very few batters will be able to do. He will be an inspiration to a lot of batters all over the world to be very unconventional and not stick to the normal ways of batting,” Kanitkar was quoted as saying to Amazon Prime Video.

“So, what we have seen from him is that he practices and did it as a child as well. He has been rewarded for playing tennis-ball cricket. He has developed those shots and stuck with them,” he added.

Suryakumar finished with 124 runs in two matches in the New Zealand T20Is. Prior to that, he had finished as the third-highest run-getter in the T20 World Cup 2022 having amassed 239 runs at an outstanding strike rate of 189.68 including three half-centuries across six games.

The Mumbai cricketer has already amassed more than 1000 T20I runs this year and as of now has scored 1164 runs averaging 46.56 at a strike rate of 187.43 in 31 outings.

He would now be hoping to showcase yet another consistent performance when  India and New Zealand face off in the series-deciding third ODI at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Wednesday, November 30.