'Kept Suryakumar Yadav in my World Cup Team But..': Ex-India Opener's Blunt Take on SKY's ODI Struggles

Despite sitting pretty at the top of the ICC T20I rankings for batsmen, Suryakumar Yadav has failed to replicate that form in ODIs.

With the ICC World Cup slated to be held in India in October-November, Surya has a chance to cement his place in the ODI team as Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul are out injured however, the 32-year-old continues to struggle. In the first ODI against West Indies, SKY was promoted up the order as India needed just 115 runs to win however, the middle-order batter ended up gifting his wicket to Gudakesh Motie.

Furthermore, the manner of his dismissal left former India opener Aakash Chopra baffled. Surya attempted to play the sweep shot multiple times, there was even a huge appeal on the ball before he was eventually given LBW out.

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Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha while decoding the dismissal felt as if Surya had taken it upon his ‘ego’ to play the sweep shot which ended up being the reason for his latest failure.

In a match where India didn’t need too many runs, Suryakumar didn’t end up impressing anyone, with the selectors in West Indies for the ‘audition’.

“Then came Suryakumar Yadav - that’s another question. This was an opportunity for him. I had kept Suryakumar Yadav in my World Cup team but for that, he will have to score runs," Aakash said on his YouTube channel.

He continued, “He was sent to bat at No. 3 so that he goes and collects runs, and his name continues to remain in the audition."

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Having smashed a boundary in Gudakesh Motie’s over with the sweep, Surya continued to the play the same shot on four balls before he fell in the bowler’s trap who came up with a simple wicket-to-wicket delivery.

“He was batting decently, but the way he got out - he first hit a sweep which went for a four, another sweep and got beaten, another sweep and a leg-before appeal, and then another sweep and got out leg-before. These were four consecutive balls and not four separate events," stated Chopra further.