Credit: twitter
Suryakumar Yadav, the middle order batter for Team India in limited-overs cricket, has come under fire from Aakash Chopra on commentary, during the final and deciding ODI of the three-match series between West Indies and India. On August 1, Tuesday, when the 32-year-old was batting in the middle in Tarouba, Trinidad, the former Indian player on commentary with JioCinema, made a big statement that he hasn’t performed well enough to get a place in the playing XI of the ODI World Cup at home later this year.
For the unversed, the West Indies captain Shai Hope won the toss and chose to field in the third and final ODI at the Brian Lara Stadium. But the bowlers didn’t back his decision as the Indian openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill took them to the cleaners.
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They stitched together a 143-run first wicket stand within 20 overs, to put Team India on their way to a massive first innings total. Ishan Kishan, who scored 77 runs in 63 deliveries, including eight fours and three maximums, got stumped by Shai Hope off the bowling of Yannic Cariah. Ruturaj Gaikwad didn’t trouble the scorers much either, dismissed for eight, nicking a beautiful delivery from Alzarri Joseph to slips cordon, where Brandon King took a smart catch.
Then, Sanju Samson joined Shubman Gill in the middle to immediately put the pressure on the West Indies bowlers with some powerful stroke play. They got a 77 run partnership, in which the 28-year-old got a fifty off just 41 balls, including two fours and four maximums. He lost his wicket shortly afterwards, trying to elevate a fuller length delivery from Romario Shepherd over the mid off fielder, but only managing to find Shimron Hetmyer.
When Shubman Gill got out for a stylish innings of 85 runs against Gudakesh Motie, Suryakumar Yadav walked to the middle to join the stand-in captain Hardik Pandya. While they were putting a decent partnership together, Aakash Chopra was quoted as saying in commentary on JioCinema, “There is no place for Suryakumar Yadav in playing XI of ODI World Cup.”
But the Mumbai-born batter, who was unaware about the aforementioned comment, scored a quick-fire 35 off just 30 deliveries with a couple of fours and sixes each, before getting out to Romario Shepherd, while trying to force the issue. Hardik Pandya went on to score 70 not out in just 52 balls, which included four fours and five maximums to propel the Indian score to 351-5 in their allotted 50 overs.
