India’s T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav said that it has been a long year since he was awarded the Player of the Series and runs were flowing, adding that it is a part of life and he is glad that he can
go into the T20 World Cup with runs behind his back.
Once India made a humongous 271/5, riding on Ishan Kishan’s (103, 43 balls, 6×4, 10×6) and Suryakumar’s (63, 30b, 4×4, 6×6), only the margin of win needed to be known.
The Kiwis fought in pockets, but finished with 225 all out. For India, pacer Arshdeep regrouped from his travails to take a delightful five-for (5/51). At the end of the match, Suryakumar was awarded the Player of the Series for his 242 runs in five matches, which came at a stunning average of 80.66.
“It has been a long year and a long wait for moments like this. I have always dreamed about when this time would come. You (Murali Kartik) said it before the last series in Ahmedabad, when SKY is there, don’t fear,” Suryakumar said while speaking at the post-match presentation.
“I just kept doing the same things I had been doing over the last year and stuck to my routines. I knew I was not out of form, just out of runs. It has been a really good series and going into the World Cup feeling like this is special,” Suryakumar added.
Suryakumar scored 5, 12 and 5 in the last three T20Is against South Africa and 24 and 15 in two List A matches for Mumbai ahead of the New Zealand T20Is. But his comeback would give India a massive boost ahead of their T20 World Cup defence.
“I think the sky was not blue for a year. But that is life, it is part of the journey. I took it in my stride, went back to the drawing board and tried to understand what was going wrong,” Suryakumar said.
