India batter Suryakumar Yadav might have been undergoing a sudden poor run of form with the bat but has received backing from former Australia captain Ricky Ponting.
Suryakumar Yadav had an excellent outing in T20Is in the year 2022 scoring over 1100 runs and scoring 2 centuries as well. He added another ton in T20Is against Sri Lanka at home recently but hasn’t been able to crack the code in ODIs and even in the two Tests he has played.
Suryakumar has scored 172 ODI runs at an average of just 12.28 since his last ODI half-century in February 2022 and most recently became the first batter to get out on the first ball in three consecutive ODIs, a fate he suffered against Australia recently at home.
While skipper Rohit Sharma, emerging opener Shubman Gill and veteran batter Virat Kohli are expected to fill the vital spots in India’s top order, the team’s middle order woes continued during their recent ODI series loss at home against Australia.
However, Ponting urged India to stick with Suryakumar Yadav in the middle order, especially with question marks on the availability of Shreyas Iyer.
“Yeah, absolutely. Everyone in their career goes through something like that. I mean, I’m not sure I have seen it before where someone’s got three first-ball ducks in a row in an entire series. But look, we’ve all been there. You have your ups and downs as international players,” Ponting told host Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review.
“His previous 12 or 18 months have been absolutely outstanding. And everyone around the world knows what Surya can do in white-ball cricket. I feel they should stick with him because he’s the sort of player that can win you a World Cup. He might be a little bit inconsistent but he’s the sort of guy that in big moments can win you games. A bit like the late great Andrew Symonds did for Australia.
So that’s definitely the way that I’d look at it for India. I wouldn’t be playing safe. I’d be going with match-winning players and I think he’s a match-winner,” the three-time World Cup winner said.
He Should Bat At No.5: Ricky Ponting On Suryakumar Yadav Being In India’s ODI World Cup Squad
Ponting also believed that the player could be best utilised at the number five spot. Ponting reckoned Surya is the kind of a player who can win you a World Cup. And hence despite his recent inconsistent form, he should be backed.
“I think he was only batting at five, wasn’t he? I don’t think they want him much lower than that, especially when they’ve got Hardik (Pandya), (Ravindra) Jadeja and Axar (Patel), they’ve got plenty of batting. I’m a big believer in giving your best batter as much time as you can in all formats of the game. Because if you keep them down the order, quite often you don’t get to use your best players and that’s the last thing you want. So I think the No.5 slot’s perfect for him and he’s just got to grow into that role there,” Ponting said.