Ind vs NZ T20Is: ‘Actually, it’s monkey off the back…’: Ashwin on Indian T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav’s knock

“Actually, it’s monkey off the back. Many people were talking about Suryakumar Yadav’s batting and form. In all honesty, you don’t have to aim for consistency in T20Is. About Surya, I liked one thing today, he got his form, he got those runs, he looked in good touch. But mostly in times from the past, if the batsman is looking for runs and he wants to put the runs on board, they would have looked to get a 50. But Surya did not do that,” said Ashwin on his Youtube channel Ash ki Baat.

India had lost the wickets of Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan within the first three overs in their innings. With Abhishek Sharma scoring at a strike rate in excess of 200, Yadav stitched together a third-wicket partnership of 99runs with Sharma with the Indian captain scoring 32 runs at a strike rate of 145.45 and Sharma scoring 60 runs off 25 balls at a strike rate of 240 during the partnership. Ashwin lauded Yadav’s strike rate as well going for the big shots and his fear free approach on Wednesday. Ashwin also shared how Wednesday’s knock will be a big positive for Yadav, who crossed 9,000 runs in T20s and became fourth Indian cricketer after Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan to achieve the feat. “Because the theme of this T20 is we will keep hitting, we will not step back. We would like to score 30-40 more runs. And especially where these World Cup matches will be held in India, those grounds are not very big. So I have this 100 percent feeling that this Indian team will really set the cat amongst the pigeons in some of the games. And the way Surya batted, he looked in his element. He played a nice pleasing cover drive. The shot of the day was when he stepped out and was not in the range but punched the ball through long on and deep mid-wicket. So that is a vintage Surya Kumar Yadav shot. So all in all, he looked very very good and it’s a big positive for him and he will feel much better going into the next T20,” added Ashwin.

Wednesday also saw Rinku Singh play a knock of 40 runs of more for the first time since October 2024 with Singh smashing 44 runs off 20 balls. The 28-year-old who was not picked up for the 2024 T20 World Cup, has been named in the Indian T20 team for the upcoming T20 World Cup and Ashwin believes that Singh suits the role of a finisher in the Indian team very well. “Rinku Singh had a break. In T20, he did not get picked for the last World Cup. But he was very close. He batted very well. He had done the role of a finisher very well. Obviously, you won’t get much success when you play the role of a finisher. Sometimes, you will have ups and downs. He does everything for the team. Gives his life for the team. And today he got the chance and we played a little aggressively as a team till the end. Hardik (Pandya) also played very aggressively. The way Abhishek batted, Hardik batted, for that Rinku Singh is needed in the middle. Who will be able to handle the pressure and can even hit the ball later. The way he hit, giving the last over to Daryl Mitchell against someone like Rinku Singh is throwing him to the wolves,” said Ashwin.