India's T20I phenomenon Suryakumar Yadav has doused the flames over the Lucknow pitch controversy that led to curator getting sacked. On the eve of the decider of T20I series, Suryakumar said that he is "completely fine" with whatever surface he has to play on as it is not under his control.
"We (Hardik and I) had a chat later on, and it was like, whatever we got in future we will go with it. It's completely fine," Surya said in the pre-match press conference on January 31.
"It doesn't matter what soil you play on. These are the things which aren't in your control. We did what we had in our control, we had to adapt, apply on that ground and move on with the situation. But it was an exciting game.
"Any game, ODI or T20I, low or high scoring, if there's competition in the game, wickets, I don't think, matter a lot. You go out there, have a challenge, accept it and move on," Surya added.
Surya and skipper Hardik Pandya got India over the line in low-scoring run chase. Suryakumar finished the run chase with a boundary off the penultimate ball of the innings. The 32-year-old said that how they kept each other calm in the tense situation when boundaries were not coming.
"Actually, we have been batting together for a very long time now. We had some good partnerships in the past.
"At that time, it was very important for us to have good communication and have a nice atmosphere as we knew that it was a little tense in the last over.
"We were just having a laugh, backing each other and telling each other whoever got an opportunity let's try and finish the game," the T20I speciallist explained how they approached the run chase.
Suryakumar was struggling to score at run-a-ball which is completely opposite to his high strike rate game. The Mumbai batter credited his domestic cricket experience while batting in tense situations.
"I've played a lot of domestic cricket before making my international debut, that has helped me a lot.
"You have to apply yourself a lot and the grind you have there, playing on different challenging tracks, I just carried it from there. Rest I've learnt seeing so many senior players in the team, talking to them. Every game, I try to put my best foot forward."
Suryakumar has been included in the 17-member Test squad for upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He said that he wants to play Test cricket but currently his focus is on the series decider.
"Obviously, everyone wants to play Test cricket. You start your cricket at domestic level, playing with red ball only, and I played for Mumbai.
"We all know how exciting the series would be, but at the same time, it's about staying in the present and the focus is on how to give your best for tomorrow's game, then we have full time to think about Tests."
Suryakumar made his T20I debut at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on March 14, 2021. Coming back to the venue of his T20I debut, Suryakumar got a bit emotional as he said, "I told my manager also 'I'm back where it all began'. Even I took the steps slowly thinking of 2021 and how I came here.
"I've very good memories, but it will be completely different now. I'm very excited. Beautiful stadium, amazing crowd, looking forward to an exciting game tomorrow," he signed off.
