Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth has lavished praise on Suryakumar Yadav for his match-winning knock against the USA in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday. SKY played a splendid knock of 84 runs off just 49 balls with the help of 10 fours and four sixes.
The Indian skipper adopted a sedate approach in the first half of his innings as the hosts were in a quagmire at 77-6. However, SKY changed gears towards the fag end of the innings to deliver the goods for his team.
Srikkanth said SKY knew India were finished if he had not played this pivotal knock.
Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “Suryakumar Yadav wanted to prove a point of making India win with a captain’s knock, saying Mumbai is his place. He knew the wicket at the back of his palm. Thanks to this, India’s batting will be at a different level going forward. We saw it with India’s bowling. When the captain leads from the front like this, the entire team’s emotions and energy get lifted. He knew India was finished if he got out.”
“The way he scored in that partnership with Arshdeep was fantastic. His range of shots are extraordinary. Once you cross 30, the ball looks like a volleyball, when you reach 40, you see it like a football, and then after 50, it’s like a basketball. That’s why once he crossed 50, he never mistimed a single shot. The way he paced his innings was magnificent. He was the only one who showed game awareness.”
Srikkanth praised Suryakumar Yadav for playing according to the match situation as India was struggling in the first half of their batting innings.
“He played at a run-a-ball for the first 25 balls. It wasn’t a typical Surya knock. It was more of a captain’s knock, leading from the front. When a captain plays such a responsible knock, it’ll take the team’s confidence to a different level, as we saw with India’s bowling. What I liked was he never threw his wicket away,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).
“Once he settled down after reaching 25, he took Netravalkar apart. It reminded me of Rohan Kanhai, who also used to hit sixes lying on his back. Surya rarely played his typical pickup shot today. He never took risky options. Kapil Dev played a similar knock with his 175 when India were 18/6 (1983 World Cup).”
India will next take on Namibia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on February 12.
