NEW DELHI: Suryakumar Yadav has been a trailblazer who has taken cricket’s shortest format by storm. Inarguably, India’s first true-blue T20 superstar, Surya has now trained his eyes on being successful in longer formats but without changing the essence of his batsmanship. In an exclusive interview with PTI, ‘SKY’ spoke about his journey to the top of T20 rankings, his focus on ODI World Cup this year, ambitions to wear the India whites and how wife Devisha became the force behind the cricketer and the person that he is today.
Excerpts from Interview:
Q: If you were told one year ago that you will be world no. 1 batter in the T20 format, would you have believed?
A: It still feels like a dream. To be seen and called as world’s No. 1 T20 batter, if someone would have told me one year back, I don’t know how I would have reacted. When I started playing this format, I wanted to be the best and I worked hard for it.
Q: The priority in 2023 will be ODI World Cup and does that mean you will change your game for the 50-over format?
A: I don’t like to think too much when I am playing any format. Because I enjoy this game, whenever I go into bat, I put up a show. What I always dream and visualise is that whenever I go in, I want to be the game-changer. I have always loved batting whether it is T20Is, ODIs or Ranji Trophy. If I can do what my team wants me to do in 40-50 balls, why should I bat 100 balls?
Q: Do you fancy your chances of making the India squad for 4-Test series against Australia?
A: I started playing age-group national level cricket in red ball, so the answer lies there itself. There are a lot of tricky yet fascinating situations that you encounter across five days and you want to embrace that challenge. Yes, I am ready if they (Indian team management) need me.
Q: Skills can be taught but how does one train one’s mind to cope with pressures at the highest level?
A: I would say it was never impossible but certainly it was difficult. It needed a smart approach. Instead of doing a lot of quantity, I did a lot of quality practice. There were lot of sacrifices made by me and my family. Before making my India debut, I had played 10 years of first-class cricket.Grinding it out at first-class level, you learn a lot of tricks of the trade.
So when you graduate to international level and play different bowlers, all you need to do is express yourself.
But let me tell you this. If you have gone through domestic grind in India, you are ready for international cricket and when you start that level, you are not carrying any baggage. Just execute what you did at the domestic level.
Q: You were India Emerging (U-23) captain nearly a decade back. Over the years, while putting up performances at domestic and IPL level, did you get anxious or angry that national call-up wasn’t coming?
A: I won’t say I got irritated but I would always think how I could be different to move to the next level. So hard work continued and you need to enjoy the game also. That’s why you started playing cricket. Whether it’s a simple training session or even the food that was healthy but I didn’t enjoy earlier, I started to savour it. I knew that if I stop thinking about outcomes and just focus on process, I would someday break the door.
