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While the focus has shifted to Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Indian team management will be looking for their no.4 batter in the absence of an injured Shreyas Iyer who is expected to be out of action for three to five months. Rohit Sharma-led India need a dependable batter in the middle order who can accelerate the scoring rate or prevent a batting collapse. Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting feels that under-fire Suryakumar Yadav can be the perfect man for the job. Ponting event compared him to late Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds.
Despite Suryakumar's record three consecutive golden ducks against Australia in the ODI series, Ponting feels that he can be the sort of player who can win a team World Cup.
"Everyone in their career goes through something like that. I mean, I'm not sure I have seen it before where someone's got three first-ball ducks in a row in an entire series. But look, we've all been there. You have your ups and downs as international players," the former Australia skipper was quoted as saying by the ICC Review.
"His previous 12 or 18 months have been absolutely outstanding. And everyone around the world knows what Surya can do in white-ball cricket," Ponting noted. "I feel they should stick with him because he's the sort of player that can win you a World Cup. He might be a little bit inconsistent but he's the sort of guy that in big moments can win you games. A bit like the late great Andrew Symonds did for Australia.
"So that's definitely the way that I'd look at it for India. I wouldn't be playing safe. I'd be going with match-winning players and I think he's a match-winner."
Suryakumar has been a revelation for India in T20I cricket. He broke multiple records in the year 2022 despite India's semi final exit from T20 World Cup in Australia. However, in the ODI format, he is yet to prove his worth. His strike rate of 102.12 is not an issue but he has managed to score 433 runs from 21 innings at an average of 24.05 including two half-centuries.
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