'Why Suryakumar Yadav doesn’t get India call despite scoring consistently?' tweets Harbhajan Singh

Senior spinner Harbhajan Singh is known for his outright opinions, be it over cricketing expertise or controversies. The 39-year-old Turbanator recently questioned why Suryakumar Yadav fails to get a national call despite scoring heavily in domestic cricket. The 29-year-old batsman from Mumbai is known more for his appearances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but hasn’t yet got a call for India.

Harbhajan, who has 417 wickets in Test cricket to rank third in the country’s list of highest wicket-takers in the long format, tweeted on Saturday throwing his weight behind the right-hand batsman who averages above 43 in first-class cricket and has a strike rate of 135 plus in T20s.

Harbhajan’s tweet came after Yadav slammed 81 in just 31 balls against Chhattisgarh for Mumbai in Vijay Hazare Trophy in Alur although his side still lost the game. He smashed eight fours and six sixes during his knock at No.5 and had a strike rate of above 261! Yadav, who has played for teams like Kolkata Knight Riders and currently plays for Mumbai Indians in the IPL, has scored 1,544 runs from 85 outings.

Harbhajan was disappointed that Yadav hasn’t yet made it to the national side despite being a consistent scorer. He also encouraged Yadav to continue with his hard work and told him his time will come.

India are in a transition period now following the disappointing loss in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup. The team’s batting order in the limited-over versions is still not a perfect shape and experts are coming up with diverse opinions as to who the Men in Blue could play their boost their middle order. The next World Cup – in the T20Is – will be held in Australia in another year’s time and India are yet to make the right pick for the No.4 position, something that cost them dearly in the 50-over World Cup in England.

Yadav made his first-class debut in 2010 and has gone on to play 72 first-class, 78 List A and 138 T20s so far. He has slammed 12 centuries in first-class cricket and 11 in T20s.

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