Suryakumar Yadav – The Late Bloomer
After making 73 on his Ranji Trophy debut in 2010, Suryakumar Yadav followed it up by finishing as Mumbai’s leading run scorer in 2011-12. Only three players made more than his 754 Ranji Trophy runs that season. Even more impressive was the fact that his 2 hundreds and 5 half centuries came at a strike rate of 85. At that stage, the expectation was that he would soon follow Rohit Sharma’s path into the Indian squad.
The Mumbai team gave him his first Indian T20 League opportunity in 2012, but he couldn’t score in his only game. In 2014, he went to the Kolkata team in the auction, and he would go on to win the title with them that year. He stayed there for three more seasons, though being utilized as a middle-order impact player meant that he never crossed 200 runs in any of his four seasons there
He went back to Team Mumbai in the 2018 auction, and it was then that his career really took off. The Mumbai team’s leading scorer with 512 runs in 2018, he made 424 runs in 2019 and 480 runs in 2020, and was part of a title-winning side on both occasions. That consistency also earned him a spot in the Indian team for the 2021 T20 World Cup. The tournament didn’t go that well for the 31-year-old as he finished with 43 runs from four matches. His appearances with the Indian team have increased rather than decreased since then with the player now being considered a regular in both ODI and T20 formats.
Yadav was one of the four players to be retained by the Mumbai team ahead of the mega auction this year for a fee of ₹8 crores. What was notable was the fact that Mumbai preferred to retain Yadav instead of the likes of Hardik Pandya.
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Suryakumar Yadav’s Personal Details
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- Name
- :
- Suryakumar Yadav
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- Date of Birth
- :
- 14th September 1990
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- Birthplace
- :
- Mumbai
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- Height
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- 5′11″
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- Batting Style
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- Right-handed batter
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- Playing Role
- :
- Top-order batter
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- Major Teams Played For
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- India, Kolkata Team, Mumbai Team
Current Rankings
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T20 29 -
ODI 84 -
Test ---
Suryakumar Yadav Career Summary
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- Format
- M
- Inn
- Runs
- HS
- Avg
- SR
- 100
- 200
- 50
- 4s
- 6s
- CT
-
- ODI
- 7
- 7
- 267
- 64 vs WI
- 53.4
- 103.09
- 0
- 0
- 2
- 33
- 1
- 6
-
- T20I
- 14
- 12
- 351
- 65 vs WI
- 39.00
- 165.66
- 0
- 0
- 4
- 32
- 20
- 7
Suryakumar Yadav: Key Skills and Strengths
As his first class average of 44 and 14 centuries in the longer format indicate, Yadav has always possessed a solid technique. But it’s his ability to innovate and disrupt bowling plans that marked him out as a special talent even in his younger years. However, it took him time to blend the improvisations with consistent performances. The Kolkata team tended to use him lower down the order, and though he was part of the Indian T20 League trophy-winning team there, he didn’t stand out in a crowd of gifted strokeplayers.
But given more opportunities in the Mumbai set-up, he has set about showing exactly what he’s capable of. And that form has now been translated to the international stage as well, with a nascent career already featuring half centuries in ODIs and T20Is for India.
Suryakumar Yadav: Awards and Achievements
He has made rapid strides in the last four seasons as he bids to make up for lost time. His ability to score runs quickly anywhere in the order makes Yadav a great asset to both the Indian cricket team and Team Mumbai. Adept at playing spin, he’s also not afraid to play his shots against pace.
Here are some of Yadav’s records and achievements:
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He was the first Indian to hit the first ball he faced in a T20I for a six. He did so off Jofra Archer.
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Only Shikhar Dhawan (67) hit more fours than Yadav (61) in the Indian T20 League in 2020, with the former having played two more innings than the latter.
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In the current Mumbai team squad, only Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard – who’ve both been there over a decade – have made more runs.
Suryakumar Yadav’s Indian T20 League Journey
After his impressive introduction to first class cricket, it was no surprise when the Mumbai team signed him before the Indian T20 League 2012. But opportunities were rare, and it was only when the Kolkata team bought him at the auction in 2014 that he found a team environment showing trust in his skills. Part of a title-winning squad in Kolkata in 2014, he stayed on for three more seasons. But the fact that he faced just 461 balls across those four seasons and 54 games said much about how little he was used. Quick cameos occasionally helped the team, but did little to further his own ambitions. It was only when he moved back to the Mumbai team in 2018 that his career graph started to soar. After three straight 400-run seasons and two title wins, he’s very much a cornerstone of Mumbai’s batting. That is precisely why the Mumbai team went out of the way to make sure that Yadav was their player for yet another season.
Here are some of Suryakumar’s biggest achievements in the Indian T20 League:
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Out of those who have played more than 50 games, only 10 Indian players have a better strike rate than his 135.28 – better than both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
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He is one of a handful of players – Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Dwayne Bravo are among the others – who have won the Indian T20 League with more than one franchise.
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- Format
- M
- Runs
- HS
- Avg
- SR
- 100
- 50
- 4s
- 6s
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- Indian T20 League
- 115
- 2341
- 82 vs Hyderabad
- 28.90
- 135.71
- 0
- 13
- 261
- 68
Suryakumar Yadav: FAQs
His father, Ashok Kumar Yadav, worked as an electrical engineer at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) based near Mumbai. Suryakumar was born there in 1990.
A blistering innings of 200 (232 balls) against Orissa in his first full Ranji Trophy season suggested that he was a talent to watch out for.
In interviews, Yadav has spoken of how the calmness of two cricketers influenced his own approach in pressure situations. One is Gautam Gambhir, who was his captain with the Kolkata team, and the second is MS Dhoni, Indian cricket’s most dominant figure when Yadav was a youngster making his way up.
He has been married to Devish Shetty since 2016.
Apart from playing cricket in the streets with his friends, Yadav’s other sporting love as a child was badminton.
It’s just a reference to his initials, Surya Kumar Yadav.
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