Suryakumar Yadav, the Central Pillar of India’s T20 Batting

He was perhaps being modest and downplaying his importance in India’s T20 side, but he can’t expect anyone to believe that his place in the playing XI is even remotely doubtful.

Suryakumar made his international debut last year in March. Just 18 months and 34 T20Is later, he has become the most valuable batter, if not the player, in the 15-member squad that’s set open its T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan on Sunday.

Mind you, this squad has established superstar batsmen like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Also, there are young contenders for superstar tag — KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. And a veteran in Dinesh Karthik, who has remodelled his batting to suit the finisher’s role.

In these 18 months, Suryakumar has climbed to No. 2 in the ICC men’s T20 rankings, scoring 1,045 runs (third highest) at an incredible strike rate of 176.81 — the best in the world* since his debut among batters who have faced at least 200 balls. (*16 teams participating in the T20 World Cup in Australia.)

While these numbers alone should be enough to establish his credentials as one of the best T20 batters in the world, the manner in which he scores his runs at that rapid pace is nothing short of a spectacle and that further adds to his aura as the one of most innovative batters of his time.

He is frequently compared, somewhat justifiably, to the legendary AB de Villiers for his ability to score runs through areas that are difficult to access for most batsmen. This particular ability makes him the most unique Indian batter. None of the India regulars, or irregulars, bats as innovatively as Suryakumar does.

He is obviously good at playing traditional shots, like drives and square cuts. But with data analytics available to every team now-a-days, most bowlers can find ways to stop, or at least contain, runs. In T20 cricket where balls are a scare resource, batters constantly need to find innovative ways to gain edge. Suryakumar gains that edge by exploiting rare angles that open otherwise inaccessible areas.

He exploits the leg side with shots like Natraj swipe over fine leg, pick-up flick over deep square leg, and wristy whip over cow corner to go with across-the-line slog and down the pitch pick-up shot. On the off-side, he plays over-the-wicketkeeper ramp shot, square cut on both sides of the point fielder, and lofted drive over extra cover. He once even played an open-blade drive over backward point for a six. How do you plan, as a bowler, for a batter who has so many ways to score runs?

Another thing that separates Suryakumar from other top-order Indian batsmen is that he doesn’t take time to settle before playing big shots. Almost always he gets a boundary within the first five balls he faces. Remember how he unleashed his now-famous Natraj swipe off Jofra Archer for a six off his first ball in T20 international cricket. That’s how he operates.

The only chink in his armour is his inexperience of playing in Australia. Head coach Rahul Dravid alluded to this during his press conference after the T20 series against South Africa. “Australia is quite unique in terms of the pace and bounce on those wickets and a lot of our players have not played a lot of T20 cricket in Australia,” Dravid said.

Suryakumar, however, showed during India’s tour of England earlier this year that he can quickly adapt his game to suit the conditions.

To their credit, Indian team management ensured that the players got extra time to acclimatise to the conditions by reaching Australia a few days earlier than the schedule and arranged for a couple of extra practice games. From the early looks, Suryakumar seems to have taken to the Australian conditions like a fish to water. He has two fifties from two outings so far.

In his current form, Suryakumar’s versatility, adaptability and innovativeness make him the central pillar of India’s batting going into the T20 World Cup. India know that when he gets going, SKY is the limit.