Suryakumar Yadav is a bona fide T20 star — a cursory glance at his numbers proves his greatness. It’s a mystery how Surya hasn’t been able to find success in ODIs and recently admits he’s struggling to strike
a balance between his T20 and one-day game.
The Indian team management gave Surya a decent run in ODIs in the lead-up to the 2023 World Cup, but he was unable to justify his spot in the eleven. It’s now been two years since his last ODI appearance, even as he continues to excel in the shortest format where he’s also the captain of the Indian team.
The Indian batter recently expressed his desire to pick AB de Villiers’ brain on how to succeed in both the white-ball formats. De Villiers, one of the all-time greats, tasted success across formats. A pure entertainer with the bat in T20s, his ODI numbers are more impressive.
“If I meet him soon, I would like to ask him how he managed to balance his T20I and ODI games,” Suryakumar said while speaking to journalist Vimal Kumar on the latter’s YouTube channel. “I haven’t been able to do so. I thought ODIs should be played like T20Is. I want to ask him what he did to be successful in both formats.”
“AB, if you are listening to this, please get in touch with me quickly. There are three or four important years ahead for me. I’m very keen on playing ODI cricket. Please help me! I couldn’t balance T20Is and ODIs,” Surya added.
De Villiers is more than happy to address Surya’s concerns, adding he will do his homework and probably give the Indian batting star a “good answer”.
“I have a lot of questions to ask him. I’ll start preparing for his questions as well,” De Villiers on YouTube. “Regarding the balancing of formats, I am not sure he has big hopes and dreams of playing Test cricket. I don’t think he’ll throw it away. But on finding consistency between ODIs and T20s, I’ll do my homework and give SKY a good answer.”
