Kamal Ghorui
Sanjay Manjrekar has raised concerns over the batting approach of India captain Suryakumar Yadav during the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.Manjrekar praised Suryakumar’s 84-run innings against the United States in Mumbai, where he adjusted his tempo and finished strongly. However, he said the India captain has continued with a cautious approach in later matches, which has limited the roles of Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh in the closing overs.“There is something that I am seeing in Suryakumar Yadav which I’m not liking too much. 77-6, India against USA, at the Wankhede, and Suryakumar Yadav had to change his game, which he did brilliantly. Just slowed down a little bit, and then exploded, and got a great score, player of the match, and everything,” Manjrekar said on his Instagram page.
He added that Suryakumar may have taken that approach too far after that game, including during the match against Pakistan. According to him, both Suryakumar and Tilak Varma have been batting conservatively, which has reduced the impact of finishers.“Since then, I think he is taking that a bit too far. Against Pakistan, where India lost a couple of wickets, he really pulled down the shutters quite a lot. He and Tilak Varma are both playing slightly conservatively, and in the end, what happens is that people like Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, and Rinku Singh are not really tapped into resources as much,” he continued.Manjrekar also said such an approach can be risky in T20 cricket if a senior player or captain feels the need to stay till the end, especially while batting first or chasing big totals. He said no top-order batter should try to control the innings in that way.“In T20 cricket, that is a dangerous thing to do, where a senior player or captain feels like he has got to stay in, especially while batting first. When you are setting targets of 200 plus, if you have somebody in the top four who believes that he is the guy who has got to control the innings and make sure he is the one who will take India to a certain score, that is a very dangerous tactic. No batter must think like that. So, Surya must be careful about that,” Manjrekar concluded.Suryakumar has scored 164 runs in the tournament so far, second only to Ishan Kishan among India’s batters. His strike rate of 136.13 is well below Kishan’s 202.29.India will play South Africa in their first Super 8 match in Ahmedabad on Sunday. India topped Group A with eight points after winning all their group-stage matches.
