Suryakumar Yadav walked in early for the post-match press conference. And as he fidgeted with his cellphone in the corner, Paul van Meekeren was addressing the sports writers at the Sydney Cricket Ground here on Thursday night. And one of the questions was about bowling to Suryakumar and the Netherlands speedster stressed that he found it most difficult to bowl to the India batter, even more than Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Minutes later, it was Suryakumar’s turn to speak and referring to van Meekeren’s praise, the batter quipped: “I will take that as a compliment but wouldn’t say more. Will continue batting the way I do.” After having played a key role in India’s triumph over the Netherlands in the ICC T20 World Cup game, Suryakumar is clear about his role: “Batting at four, there are two situations, one in which the team has lost early wickets and scored less or has scored a lot and lost some wickets. In the first instance, we need to stabilise and then I have to chase a tempo, in the second I have to be in that tempo immediately, either way getting to that tempo of scoring is important.”
And what about the string of partnerships with Kohli? “We respect each other and have a camaraderie and plus he will give inputs like what delivery is the bowler likely to bowl and batting with him also means that you got to run hard. I look forward to more partnerships with him,” Suryakumar said.
If helping India retain the winning touch is part of Suryakumar’s philosophy, van Meekeren was more into the theme of improving cricket in the Netherlands. “We can only get better and it was special to play at this ground with a crowd and that too against India,” the seamer said.
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