Suryakumar Yadav will do wonders for India: Dinesh Karthik

After drawing first blood in the opening Test at Centurion, Team India lost the next two games from a position of strength before being whitewashed in the three-match ODI series that followed. Despite the Men In Blue’s forgettable outing in the just-concluded bilateral series, veteran wicketkeeper batter Dinesh Karthik has highlighted the silver lining in the dark cloud.

Karthik has given special mention to the limited-overs batter Suryakumar Yadav for his impressive batting performance in the dead-rubber third ODI at Newlands, Cape Town on Sunday. Even though he ran out of partners at the other end, the middle-order batter scored a 32-ball 39 at a strike rate of nearly 122 including four boundaries and a maximum.

“Suryakumar Yadav is batting on a different planet altogether; the kind of shots, the kind of positions, and the execution put together. He made batting look way easier than it was in that situation. Give him the long run, I’m sure he will do wonders for India. But, he needs a long run. Now, every time he comes out, he is under pressure from the players above and below him. It is very hard to set fields for him,” said Dinesh Karthik as quoted by Cricbuzz.

Suryakumar Yadav will play at the same tempo in any position, says Dinesh Karthik

At the same time, the Tamil Nadu cricketer also mentioned that Yadav has the ability to bat with the same mindset irrespective of where he bats at.

“SKY will play at the same tempo in any position. For Mumbai Indians also, he plays in a similar way coming in at No.3. You will get a good amount of runs if you play him at No.4 or 5, but I will bat him at No.5 or 6 in ODI cricket because he turns around games in quick time on a consistent basis”, he said.

Chasing 288, India were reeling at 210/6 in the 40th over after Suryakumar Yadav’s dismissal before Deepak Chahar‘s whirlwind knock of a 34-ball 54 brought them closer. However, once he was dismissed in the 48th over, the brittle lower order failed to show any resistance as the visitors fell agonizingly short by five runs.