ICC T20 World Cup 2022: 'After 2018, I realised what I needed to work on in my game' - Suryakumar

Tired of lingering for the unreachable Team India call-up, a frustrated Suryakumar Yadav switched from hard work to innovative work, pinching specific characteristics of his game to earn his highly-anticipated breakthrough. The 32-year-old changed his training and began dieting and batting more towards the off-side to be more cogent.

"After 2017-18 me and my wife, Devisha, sat down and decided, let's do some intelligent work from here on. You have worked hard. You have come this far, let's do something else, and we will see what happens. I started training differently. After 2018 I realised what I needed to work on in my game. I started batting more towards the off-side," Suryakumar told the Cricket Monthly magazine of ESPNCricinfo.

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"I started dieting. I did a few things that helped me in 2018 and 2019. And, subsequently, in 2020, my body was completely different," SKY added. Suryakumar debuted in international cricket in a Twenty20 (T20) game versus England in March 2021, 11 years after initiating his First-Class (FC) career. He judged that he had been practising mindlessly before and getting frustrated. However, he became more consistent after turning to"quality" training.

"It took time. It took around a year and a half to realise what my body is used to - what will help me and how I can move forward. Eventually, we both realised we were moving in the right direction. Then, everything was on autopilot. I knew what I had to do, how I had to train, how much practice I had to do," recalled SKY.

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"Before that, I was practising, getting a little frustrated sometimes. And, there was no quality in that - there was a lot of quantity. But, after 2018, there was a lot of quality in my training, diet, net sessions and everything, which helped me well. And then, it was a complete build-up, runs coming in all formats, [and] in the IPL [Indian Premier League]. So, consistency came with that, and finally, I broke the door," Suryakumar asserted.

In 2020, to his dismay, Suryakumar was left out of India's T20I squad for the Australia tour, while a couple of days after, he played a scintillating knock of 79 off 43 deliveries for Mumbai Indians (MI). "It was a little difficult. I mean, all the team-mates from different countries [during the IPL] were telling me, your opportunity has come, you are doing so well," he said.

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"And, I was also very excited then, and I imagined things: yes, I'll do this, I'll do that when I play for India. But then, when it didn't come, I was disappointed," counted Surya. The Mumbai dasher, acronymed SKY, has the propensity to hit a boundary off the opening delivery. He has hit the opening ball to the boundary on eight instances in 26 innings till the Asia Cup 2022 conclusion.

"No, that's not planned [hitting the boundary off the opening delivery]. That's what I said - when I run in to bat, I'm already warmed up and excited. So if I have to stamp my authority when I go in to bat and tell the opponent that I am here for some business and to score runs, what do I do?" SKY continued.

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"I hit a boundary [four] or a six off the first ball, or I may try and hit two-three boundaries in the first seven-eight balls I face. That's my style of playing," affirmed Suryakumar. He credited rubber-ball cricket for his stroke-playing ability across the field. I used to play a lot of rubber-ball cricket during my school days," remembered Surya.

"We used to play on challenging cement tracks. People used just to come running and chuck the ball as fast as they could. When playing with the rubber ball on hard cement, it's easy for you to scoop, pull, play an uppercut, and then play a slice-over point," Suryakumar reflected.

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"All these strokes you see me play, square of the wicket and behind square, have come from that. I have never practised this in the nets, never against the bowling machine. So, it has all come from that. How do you create those angles? You don't have any other option when it's coming at your body - instead of getting hit, you try something," concluded SKY.

(With inputs from PTI)