'He keeps motivating me' - Suryakumar Yadav thanks Harbhajan Singh for his continuous support

Suryakumar Kumar is one of those rare bread of players, who you want to go places and watch him bat. The man is a rare mix of power, elegance, tenacity and outrageous hitting skills all rolled into one. Every time he hits a whirlwind knock, social media, pundits, ex-cricketers including the likes of Harbhajan Singh wonder as to why he hasn’t still made it to the International level.

Yadav is in the midst of yet another productive domestic season. Across the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy and Deodhar Trophy and now the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, Yadav has racked up runs at an average of 93.80 and a strike-rate of 163.98, prompting the former Indian off-spinner to ask on Twitter as to why Yadav wasn’t being considered for the national side.

Harbhajan had taken to Twitter where he wrote, “Don’t know why he doesn’t get picked for India after scoring runs heavily in domestic cricket @surya_14kumar keep working hard.. your time will come.”

When asked about Harbhajan’s remarks Yadav said, “I have been sharing the dressing room with him since 2011. We have had a good friendship on and off the field. When I left Mumbai Indians and went to Kolkata Knight Riders [in the 2014 auction], he was always behind me. ‘Why are you not playing for India? You are not doing justice to your talent. I think it’s high time you become a little more consistent.'”

“There was a lot of what you can call constructive criticism. I really enjoyed it. I could feel he wants me to go ahead and play for the country, which was the best thing. Knowing he tweeted, I was really happy. I called him and told him, ‘Thank you so much Bhajju pa for tweeting for me. It means a lot that you tweeted’. He keeps motivating me, keeps pushing me because he feels I’m not doing justice to my talent,” ESPNCricinfo quoted Yadav as saying.

Fearless cricket and consistent performances will pave way for national call-up

The Mumbai Indians batsman also said that he loves playing “fearless cricket” and the consistency in run-making will eventually pave way for a national call-up. Surya, so far, has played 88 List A games, scoring 2311 runs at an average 36.10. He scored 2778 runs in T20s at an average of 30.86.