Suryakumar Yadav finds peace in the chaos of T20

Suryakumar Yadav is at peace when he is surrounded by chaos. How else do you explain what he does in T20 cricket?

Imagine a Venn diagram with three sets: Longevity (1000+ T20I runs), Consistency (average above 40) and Explosiveness (strike rate over 150). Virat Kohli has both longevity and consistency but lacks explosiveness. Glenn Maxwell has longevity and explosiveness but falls short on consistency. Rinku Singh has consistency and explosiveness but is yet to achieve longevity.

There is only one T20I batter at the intersection of these three: Suryakumar Yadav. He has 1921 runs, an average of 46.85, and a strike rate of 173.37.

Suryakumar is yet to crack it in Test cricket and ODIs, but few understand the pulse of T20 cricket better than him. Perhaps the chaos of T20 cricket leaves no room for confusion in his mind, as most of the time the only way out is to attack.

That's why even in ODIs India try to use him when the situation becomes similar to a T20 game, that is in the last 15 overs of the innings. In the ODI World Cup final on Sunday, when they lost their fourth wicket in the 29th over, Ravindra Jadeja walked in ahead of him.

Suryakumar didn't have a great World Cup. Out of seven innings he played, he couldn't cross 25 in six. But in the first T20I on Thursday, when he walked in at 22 for 2 with India chasing 209, he seemed to be in his comfort zone.

In the first innings, Josh Inglis' strokeplay during a blazing hundred had left even Suryakumar in awe. So much so that he was seen shadow-practising one of Inglis' shots.

Now it was Suryakumar's turn. On the fourth ball he faced, he brought out the 'supla shot' and lap-pulled Jason Behrendorff over fine leg. In the next over, he hit Sean Abbott for a six and a four.

Suryakumar raced to 37 off 19 balls. But at the other end, Ishan Kishan, with whom he has played a lot of cricket for Mumbai Indians in the IPL, was struggling on 19 off 21. Legspinner Tanveer Sangha had bowled his first over for just six runs despite it being a favourable match-up for Kishan.

With 130 required from 12 overs, Suryakumar and Kishan had a chat.

"I told Surya bhai I was going to take this guy [Sangha] down, irrespective of where he bowled," Kishan said afterwards. And as decided, Kishan hacked the first three balls of Sangha's next over through the leg side for 4, 6, 6.

Suryakumar, meanwhile, told Kishan just one thing: "Don't think about what we are chasing, just keep batting, we will analyse at the end of ten overs.

"After ten overs, it was a perfect, tailor-made situation - 100 [103] needed off 60 balls," Suryakumar said. "That happens every second game in the IPL."

Kishan started Sangha's next over in the same fashion, smashing him through midwicket for a four and a six. But the spinner tossed the next one wide outside off and Kishan holed out to deep extra cover. Later, Kishan revealed that Suryakumar had asked him to take a single on that particular ball. Talk about reading the pulse of the game.

Kishan fell for 58 off 39 but Suryakumar was unstoppable. He brought up his half-century off 29 balls, same as Inglis, with a six.

In the World Cup final, Australia had restricted Suryakumar by bowling the slower bouncer with deep third and fine leg in place. Abbott used the same ploy in the tenth over. Suryakumar went for the ramp, but got no power behind the shot and the ball fell well short of a charging in deep third.

For some reason, the Australia seamers didn't use that option much after that. Nathan Ellis tried it as a last resource, after Suryakumar had taken him for a four and a six in the 17th over. But the deep-third fielder was inside the 30-yard circle and Suryakumar had no trouble in helping the ball over him.

By the time Australia got rid of Suryakumar, he had scored 80 off 42, and India needed just 15 from 14. They wobbled towards the end but eventually reached there with one ball to spare.

This was also the first time Suryakumar was leading India. Did he feel that extra responsibility while batting? "I left that luggage in the dressing room," he said with a smile. "Whenever I go in to bat, I just try to enjoy my batting, whether I bat for 10 balls or 40 balls.

"I thought there would be some dew [in the second innings] but there wasn't. But I knew it's a small ground and the wicket gets better later on."

During and after the match, there was lots of praise for Suryakumar - both online and on air. The best compliment, though, came from Inglis at the post-match presser: "SKY did what SKY usually does."