Delayed debut made me hungrier: Suryakumar Yadav | Cricket News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Suryakumar Yadav was 30 when he made his international debut against England in March 2021. The wait was quite long, but he kept scoring runs in domestic cricket and didn’t stop knocking at the selectors’ door.
Popularly known as SKY among his teammates and fans, Surya says the wait made him even hungrier to succeed, as he showed with his third T20I century in less than a year during India’s 91-run win over Sri Lanka in the third T20I on Saturday in Rajkot.
Surya smashed a blistering 51-ball 112 not out in India’s dominating win that also clinched the hosts the three-match T20I series 2-1.
“It does make me even more hungrier (sic) now,” Surya told Team India head coach Rahul Dravid, during an interaction organised by BCCI.tv, when asked if the long wait has taught him to value his success a lot more.

“I mean the amount of domestic cricket I have played, I have always enjoyed playing that for my state side Mumbai and I always try to put up a show.
“Enjoyed batting even there (domestic cricket) as well. Yes it was a little challenging in the last few years but I kept telling myself this is why you play this game, (so) enjoy it. The passion for this game kept me driving, so I just kept going.”

Since making his ODI and T20I debuts in 2021, Surya has played 16 ODIs and 45 T20Is for India, scoring 384 runs (average 32.00) and 1578 runs (average 46.41), respectively.

The middle-order batter’s century on Saturday was his third in T20Is in just seven months, making him the first player in the history of the game to score three T20I hundreds when not opening the batting.
“It is actually difficult for me to pick any one innings… I enjoyed batting in all the difficult situations where I went in to bat. I just enjoyed myself, whatever I did in the last one year. I have been doing the same thing again.
“As I said before as well, I just try to enjoy and express myself as much as possible. In those difficult situations, teams try to pull the game off. I try to take the game on. If it works well for me and the team, I’m happy,” said Surya.

So how many shots from his bat are pre-determined? head coach Dravid asked the 360-degree player.
“I mean obviously in this format you have to be a little bit pre-determined, and at the same time you have to have another stroke as well if the bowler is a step ahead of you during that time. But yes, I try to play to the field what fielders are in, what bowler can bowl at that time and it works out.”
“…I set the field for myself whenever any left-arm spinner or leg-spinner or fast bowler is bowling and just try and time the ball as much as possible.”
(With inputs from PTI)