Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin reckons Suryakumar Yadav’s knock of 32 runs off 22 balls in the opening T20I against New Zealand would give him a lot of confidence. Ahead of the ongoing series, SKY scored just 244 runs at an average of 12.84 in the last 22 innings and had a top score of 47.
SKY joined forces with opener Abhishek Sharma after India was in a spot of bother at 27-2 in the opening game at Nagpur on Wednesday. Ashwin noted that SKY played aggressively and he didn’t look to complete his fifty for the team’s cause.
“It is a monkey of the back. A lot of people were talking about Suryakumar’s batting and his form and all of that. In all honesty, in T20 cricket, you dont have to aim for consistency. What I liked that he got those runs, he looked in good touch today. If a batter wants to look to get runs, they would have looked to get a fifty. But Surya did not do that. This team has a theme they will look to keep scoring and hitting. He looked in his element. He looked good and this is a big positive for him,” Ashwin said on ‘Ash ki Baat’.
On the other hand, Shivam Dube returned with figures of 2-28 in the three overs he bowled. Ashwin said India should keep backing Arshdeep Singh and Dube can also contribute in the middle overs.
He added, “I think this will be the team. There will not be many changes. I don’t know if you should rotate Arshdeep and bring in Harshit. You should keep Arshdeep in T20s. He is a marquee bowler. There is no chance to leave him. Maybe there will surely be a conversation to bring in a bowler seeing how Dube’s bowling goes. But he got three overs today. So they are backing his bowling and I think there are conversations around him bowling. This is probably the combination.”
Meanwhile, Kuldeep Yadav didn’t get a chance in the playing XI in the opening T20I after he had a mundane ODI series against New Zealand.
“Kuldeep’s ODI series did not go well. So this maybe a break for him to reflect upon. But I am a big fan. You will have to get strong as a pack in T20 cricket and address the strengths somewhere else. If you don’t have Bumrah or someone else, then you have to address with a bit of batting depth. But in this team, you are getting runs in the powerplay, Hardik is scoring, you have seven bowling options. I would like to play Bumrah, Arshdeep, Varun, and Kuldeep. But if it like today, then it is absolutely fine,” he said.
The second T20I between India and New Zealand will be played at Raipur on Friday.
