While Suryakumar Yadav’s scoring a century against Sri Lanka in the 2nd T20I didn’t come as a surprise surprise, what happened in the next match certainly was. Fans and former cricketers alike were left shocked when India did not include SKY for their next game.
It wasn’t too long ago that Suryakumar Yadav dazzled with yet another T20I century – his third for India and all in a span of six months – when he struck a glorious 112 not out in the third T20I against Sri Lanka in Rajkot. But while Suryakumar’s form wasn’t surprise, what happened in the next match certainly was. Fans and former cricketers alike were left shocked when India did not include Suryakumar for their next game – the 1st ODI against the same opponents. The decision to leave out SKY and instead give a game to Shreyas Iyer did not sit too well with people. Kris Srikkanth, a former BCCI chairman of selectors even apologised to Surya on live TV as people failed to come to terms to what they had just seen.
Surya returned for the third ODI with India having already wrapped up the series where he was dismissed cheaply for four. Suryakumar has been an absolute beast in T20Is but hasn’t quite replicated the same success in ODIs. Of course, India have played fewer ODIs in the last one year but with the 50-overs format taking precedence, that ought to change and hence, Suryakumar’s form in the one-dayers become all the more crucial. A part of this debatable Suryakumar treatment stems from the fact that is just too much competition at the moment, with multiple players gunning for one position – the problem of plenty as they call it.
One way to solve this though, as per India legend Kapil Dev is to chalk out different teams for each format. Amid the BCCI’s decision of shortlisting a pool of 15 players for the World Cup Kapil, India’s first-ever World Cup winner, believes that in the future, the Indian cricket team would have three different set of players for each format.
“I think we should leave it to the cricket board what they (selectors) plan. There are so many cricketers coming so everyone should get a chance to play. From what I can see from the outside is that they will have three teams – one each for T20Is, ODIs and Tests. That way, you can have a bigger pool,” Kapil said in an interaction with Gulf News.
As for Suryakumar, whom Kapil recently reserved high praise for saying that batsmen like him come once in a century, the decision to leave him is something the former India all-rounder couldn’t wrap his head around. Suryakumar recently mentioned how he aims at improving himself in ODIs, and now that he has also earned himself a maiden Test call-up, that determination should only get fierce. Although Suryakumar is yet to score a single half-century in his last 10 ODI innings with a best of 34 not out in November, Kapil was still left perplexed at him being left out the match after scoring a century.
“Having said that, they should have one set of teams for a period of time. You can change an odd person I can understand that. But if you Man of the Match (Suryakumar Yadav) is getting dropped the next day and somebody else comes in, we as cricketers don’t understand that,” he pointed out.
