BARBADOS: When somebody referred to
Suryakumar Yadav
as
Mohammed Siraj
by mistake, there was a roll of laughter in the press-conference room. "Woh kha rahe hain bhai, main Surya hoon," the Mumbai man said with a smile, exuding the relaxed frame of mind that the entire team is in going into the business end of the
T20 World Cup
.
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On the eve of India's first Super-8s match against
Afghanistan
here on Thursday, Surya doesn't feel any pressure being referred to as the best T20 batter in the last two years.
Rather he embraces it and tries to explain why he is "the game changer" for India.
"To be the best T20 batter in the world, I have to know how to bat in different conditions. I always try to keep changing according to the situation," Surya said after a practice session on Tuesday, when he batted for almost 40 minutes at the nets.
He was seen bringing out all those horizontal bat shots that have made him the best in business during practice and he wants to keep doing it against the likes of
Rashid Khan
and
Noor Ahmed
, who have looked pretty good in the tournament so far. "My area of strength is when the spinners are bowling and the pitch is slow. I have my gameplan which I have worked on in practice. We obviously have plans about Afghanistan and we will try to bring that to good use," the right-hand middle-order batter said.
In fact, the 33-year-old is pretty comfortable being called the game changer. "When I first walked into the Indian dressing room, I had to figure out how I have to play and how people have played in that No. 4 position. That phase between overs 7-14 are crucial because if the attacking intent can be maintained, the work for the latter batters at the death becomes easier. So I always wanted to be the game changer, I have tried a lot of match simulations so that I can be the game changer on a given day," Surya said.
In New York, Surya scored a 49-ball 50 against USA, which was slow by his standards, but it was good enough to win the game for India. He expects the pitches to be better in the West Indies, but if it is slow, the batter has a gameplan ready.
"When the ball is not coming on to the bat, the first thing you should do is to hit the gap and run hard. Yes, it becomes difficult to generate force and you have to be smart and change according to the situation. The best way is to keep talking to your partner, calm the nerves down and go about the business."
It's this simplicity in approach of Surya that makes him such a special player in T20s and it's about keeping it going for a while longer.
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