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India captain Suryakumar Yadav overcame a dreadful run in T20Is with the bat in 2025 to regain form. While Suryakumar has been leading from the front, his scoring rate has been criticised by former India cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar. The big scores haven't come in this edition of T20 World Cup as expected and Manjrekar has cautioned Suryakumar about not moving away from the attacking approach which was much-talked about leading up to the mega event. The former batter wants Suryakumar and Tilak Varma not to take a conservative approach but trust in their firepower down the order.
“There's something I'm seeing in Suryakumar Yadav, which I'm not liking too much. 77 for 6, India against USA at Wankhede. And Suryakumar Yadav had to change his game, which he did brilliantly. Just slowed down a little bit and then exploded and got a great score, player of the match and everything. Since then, I think he's taking that a bit too far. Against Pakistan, when India lost a couple of wickets, he really pulled down the shutters quite a lot,” Manjrekar said in a video he shared on Instagram.
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“He and Tilak Varma, both playing slightly conservatively. And in the end, what happens is people like Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, and Rinku Singh are not really tapped into as resources as much. In T20 cricket, that's a dangerous thing to do, when a senior player or a captain feels that he's got to stay in, especially batting first,” he added.
From four innings, Suryakumar has scored 162 runs at an average of 54 but his strike rate has dipped to 136.13. The strike rate dips even below if the match-winning unbeaten 84 against USA is taken out from it.
No anchor knocks, back firepower to post big totals
Manjrekar doesn't want an anchor-like knock from any of the top four batters. Instead, he wants the Indian lineup to continue firing on all cylinders to post in excess of 200. He pointed out that India have plenty of batting depth with Washington Sundar or Axar Patel coming in to bat at no.8.
“When you're setting targets of 200 plus, winning scores, if you have somebody in the top four who believes that he's the guy who's got to control the innings and make sure that he's the one who'll take India to a certain score, that is a very dangerous tactic. And considering that India have such fantastic players with Axar Patel at number eight or Washington Sundar at number eight, no batter must think like that,” said the 60-year-old.
Manjrekar expects the Indian batters to go even harder at the bowlers if they are batting first. He wants India to use their batting resources well, especially against a side that chases as well.
“He must trust the batters to come in after him and try and maximise returns every ball that he faces. When you have such depth in your batting, I don't think one batter, a single batter, should play in with this feeling that he's got to control the innings. That is the danger where you'll bat first and just not get enough runs on the board because you've just played too conservatively and there are wickets in hand, but you've not used your resources, and you've just got 180 runs against a strong chasing team. So, Surya has got to be careful about that,” Manjrekar further added.
The high-scoring ground in Ahmedabad
So far, four games have been played at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The lowest score batting first is 175/7 posted by New Zealand. South Africa chased it down easily with seven wickets in hand and 2.5 overs to spare.
The highest score at the venue in this edition is 213/4 posted by the Proteas against Canada. India's previous match was in Ahmedabad as well and they posted 193/6. In the run chase, the Dutch managed to post 176/7.
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