The Suryakumar Yadav That Indian Cricket Almost Missed

New Delhi: Now that Suryakumar Yadav (SKY to most) has become the star he always potentially was, one is left wondering how close India had come to missing out on the services of one of the most versatile batters in the country, one who can combine the orthodox with the outrageous and make them look equally sublime. Yadav has become an integral part of the Indian T20 team’s scheme of things in next to nothing time after mystifyingly being out of them of an inordinate period. So much so that there was a time, not so long in the past when the cricketer was threatened with slipping through the gaps in the cricket board’s thought process and being lost forever to the Indian fans.

In fact, till the 2020 season of the Indian Premier League, Yadav was just another player who had a lot of potential and could play really well under pressure.

Beginning with first-class cricket in 2010, Yadav rapidly became a regular in the Mumbai squad, a place which gives no quarter, nor does it ask for any. That in itself should have been testament enough, but the Indian teams, for a long time now, are decided more on franchise cricket form.
For Yadav, IPL too didn’t start with that much of a bang, though he got his first contract with Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2011. It was with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), however, that Yadav was noticed, but as a batter who could score quickly in the lower order.

However, KKR’s 2014 success saw him as an integral part, and there he stayed till 2018, when he was back with MI.

But even then, it took three more years of grind at that level before the Mumbai batter finally saw India colours in 2021. Since then, the story has changed rapidly.

While the player was always one to watch, his run-ins with former India captain Virat Kohli are no secret, and one can’t but help that the batter’s being ignored for the Australia squad in 2020 had quite a bit to do with the eyeball-to-eyeball staring contest with Kohli during an IPL match with Royal Challengers Bangalore, where Yadav took it upon himself to send his rivals packing.

Nevertheless, by this time his batting was taking legendary proportions and it was only a matter of time before he made the while ball squads, playing his first T20 International against England in March, 2021, followed by his One-Day International debut against Sri Lanka in July, 2021.

Now, it is inconceivable to think of the Indian upper middle-order without him. Yadav has made himself invaluable and one is only left to wonder how things would have been if he got the India nod way back in 2012, when he was considered first. But that, I guess, would take away from being SKY, as he is now.