T20 World Cup: Suryakumar Yadav Can Have More Impact In T20I’s Feels Ross Taylor

New Delhi: Former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor feels that the no.1 batter in T20I cricket, Suryakumar Yadav can have more impact in the format with the kind of approach with which he plays.

Yadav scored his only T20I ton when batting at second drop, and soared to the top of the rankings with an average of 46.56 and strike rate of 184.86 in his usual position. But Taylor believes Yadav can have even more of an impact when – not if – he moves higher in India’s batting line-up.

“Four-five is the hardest place to bat in T20s. To be ranked No.1 when you’re batting behind KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and (Virat) Kohli, some fantastic batters in there, and for him to just come out and play the way he does is a credit to him,” Taylor was quoted as saying by ICC.

“I’m sure over time he will start batting up the order, or batting where he wants to, but for a guy batting at four, I still think that’s an amazing effort.

I don’t know how he does it. He comes in, he sums up the situation really well, runs well between the wickets, but he has a lot of confidence. He intimidates bowlers once he starts getting himself in, because it feels like he can hit the ball anywhere at the moment,” he added.

The 38-year old Taylor was in India for their recent white-ball home series against Australia and South Africa, and was especially impressed with a close-up view of Yadav in action.

The former New Zealand T20I skipper tried to pinpoint what has made Yadav such a success, as well as identifying what separates him from other batters at the moment.

“He’s able to utilise the pace, play some dinky shots, but at the same time he’s got the power, he’s able to hit those pockets, hit them hard. There is something about watching him, you know something is going to happen within two or three balls,” Taylor said.

“There was a lot of talk leading into (the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup), that he’d scored a lot of runs in India but could he do it away from home, and I think he’s proved a lot of those people wrong.The big boundaries as well, he’s smacking them for six on the biggest boundaries in the world, so he’s silenced a lot of critics,” he added.

Inputs from IANS