Suryakumar Yadav, who previously dominated the shortest format, did it again on January 7 in Rajkot when he scored a century against Sri Lanka in the third T20I. The 32-year-old played around with the Lankan bowlers and scored 112 runs off 51 deliveries to aid the Men in Blue in scoring 228 runs. The Hardik Pandya-led team won the match by 91 runs and the series by 2-1 thanks to his flawless innings. Former Pakistani international Danish Kaneria was amazed by his outstanding performance and praised him as the “next Universe Boss.” A player of his caliber only appears once in a lifetime, and he made the bold claim that even Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers pale in comparison to the 32-year-old.
“The new Universe Boss is Suryakumar Yadav-the beast. Now, what can I tell about this lad, even before I have said that a player like Suryakumar comes once in a lifetime? The innings which he played today, scoring 112 off 51, no one can replicate that,” Kaneria was quoted by the Hindustan Times.
“You can speak about ABD, Chris Gayle but even these two look pale in front of Surya. He has already eclipsed them and has taken T20 cricket to a whole new level,” he added.
The 32-year-old has established himself as the new all-around performer. The middle-order hitter talked about the value of having good practice sessions when asked about his preparation. “It’s really important to put pressure on yourself when you are preparing for a game. If you do that in practice, it gets a little easier while playing the game. There is a lot of hard work involved but it’s about doing quality practice sessions. You should know what your game is and prepare accordingly.
“Boundaries behind are like 50-60 meters, so I was targeting them. There are some shots that are pre-determined but you need to have other shots too so that if the bowler changes his plan, you can have an answer,” Yadav said in the post-match presentation.
