Ahead of the 3rd ODI against Australia in Chennai, head coach Rahul Dravid defended the stylish right-handed batter Suryakumar Yadav and said that he is inexperienced when it comes to 50-over cricket.
"Not really concerned about Surya. He got two very good balls. One of the things about Surya is that he is learning the 50-overs game. The T20 is slightly different. In T20, he has played 10 years of IPL," Dravid said during a media interaction.
"He (Suryakumar) has played a lot of T20 cricket. He has played a lot of high-pressure T20 games. Even though he has played a lot of T20 cricket I think he has not played a lot of one-day cricket. We need to give him some time and be patient with it. We certainly see the upside of him doing well," he added.
Star India middle-order batter Suryakumar Yadav has endured a horrendous start to his ODI career. For some strange reasons, the stylish batter has failed to translate his T20I heroics into success in 50-over cricket. Things are only going from bad to worse for the Mumbaikar after he registered a second consecutive golden duck in the ongoing white-ball series against Australia. In the first and second ODIs, Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed by Mitchell Starc for golden ducks.
The Indian coach also rued about Shreyas Iyer's injury and said 'it's unfortunate'. Iyer suffered an injury to his back and is currently undergoing rehabilitation.
"Obviously. it is unfortunate for Shreyas to get injured. He is probably one of those guys who would bat at No.4 and given a lot of time at that position. If you notice we have stuck to the people in positions. For two years leading into this run, there is a lot of T20 cricket played and we did not have a lot of one-day cricket and if there are injuries and all that, we do have options," the Indian head coach said.
The Men in Blue and the Baggy Greens will lock horns in the third and final ODI on March 22 (Wednesday) in Chennai.
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