India Cricket
‘Suryakumar makes everyone else look so much worse’
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Australian Glenn Maxwell expressed his admiration for Suryakumar Yadav's batting, saying, "No one we've got is close to that; no one anyone else has is close to that."
Maxwell, who isn't afraid to try some unconventional shots himself, called Suryakumar's consistency in hitting some of his most audacious shots "ridiculous," among other things.
"Suryakumar Yadav is doing it in such a bizarre, ungainly way where he's hitting the middle of the bat by just like stepping across, deciding to sweep somebody who's bowling 145 (kph) from off the wicket on the other side," Maxwell said on The Grade Cricketer Podcast.
"And then just putting his head down walking down chewing some gum, glove tap, bat tap, sort of a bit of a swagger and off he goes again and does it again" he added.
Suryakumar, the No. 1 batter in the ICC T20I player rankings, most recently hit 111 not out in 51 balls to give India a big win over New Zealand in Mount Maunganui.
Maxwell, who is recovering after breaking his leg in a "freak accident," described Suryakumar's innings as "extraordinary," adding that it was sometimes frustrating for him to watch Suryakumar bat because he was "so much better than everyone else."
"I saw the [Mount Maunganui T20I] scorecard from the first innings. I screenshot it and sent it straight to Finchy [Aaron Finch] and I said, 'What is going on here?' This bloke is batting on a different planet. I said, 'Look at everyone else's scores and look at this bloke that's 111 off 50! What is going on?' So, the next day, I watched the full replay on [an app] and watched the whole innings. It is just extraordinary,” he added.
Suryakumar has been in exceptional form in T20Is in 2022. He is the highest run-getter with 1164 runs in 31 games this year, averaging 46.56 and striking at 187.43.
He also had a terrific T20 World Cup, where he notched up 239 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 189.68, often giving India the impetus at the end.