Former India's star all-rounder Yuvraj Singh has come to underfire Suryakumar Yadav's rescue who is going through a lean patch in the 50-over format. India's flamboyant batter has failed to replicate his T20I wizardry in ODIs and his recent failure in the three-match ODI series against Australia, where he bagged a hat-trick of golden ducks, has brought him in strict scrutiny. Suryakumar had no answer to Mitchell Starc's bowling in the first two ODIs, while Ashton Agar rocked the T20I's Numero Uno in the third tie in Chennai.
But amid Suryakumar's tough times, Yuvraj has thrown his weight behind him and kept aside the star batter's recent struggles. Yuvraj believe Suryakumar can play an instrumental role in the upcoming ODI World Cup if given chance.
“Every sports person goes thru ups & downs in their career! We’ve all experienced it at sum point. I believe @surya_14kumar is a key player for India 🇮🇳 & will play an imp role in the #WorldCup if given the opportunities. Let’s back our players coz our Surya 🌞 will rise again 💯,” Yuvraj tweeted.
Notably, the Mumbai-born cricketer became only the sixth Indian batter to have registered three ducks on the trot, in the 50-over format. Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah are among the others on this list. Meanwhile, Steve Smith and Co. made a scintillating comeback to seal the series (1-2) in Chennai.
Many cricket pundits have called for Sanju Samson's inclusion in India's ODI fold as Suryakumar's replacement going by the latter's flop show with the bat in the 50-over format. Samson who has been out of the side due to knee injury, has scored 330 runs from 10 ODI innings at an average of 66 including two half-centuries. On the other hand, India's T20I superstar, Surya has scored 433 runs from 21 innings at an average of 24.05 including two half-centuries.
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