Very Happy And Proud That Suryakumar Yadav Made His India Debut: Mahela Jayawardene

The last 3-4 years has witnessed a meteoric rise of Suryakumar Yadav, who has impressed the cricketing fraternity with his maturity and impressive strokeplay. Suryakumar Yadav has played an instrumental role in Mumbai Indians’ dominance in recent times and made an impactful international debut when the chance came. Mumbai Indians’ coach Mahela Jayawardene hailed the 30-year old for breaking into the Indian team, which has not been easy to do in recent times.

Suryakumar Yadav’s long-awaited debut came along in the recent five-match T20 series against England at home. In the two innings that he played out of three matches, the elegant right-handed batsman crafted explosive knocks of 57 and 32 to shape the Indian team’s victory. In fact, Yadav began his international career with a hook shot for six over deep square leg off Jofra Archer’s bowling.

Mahela Jayawardene claimed that he feels proud and happy that Suryakumar Yadav got the reward of his hard work by making his India debut. With the amount of talent in the Indian team popping up these days, the former Sri Lankan captain feels it’s not easy to get into the side.

“Very happy and proud that he made the India debut, well deserved for all the hard work that he has put in because it’s not an easier set up to get in because of the amount of talent that Indian cricket has at the moment. He definitely showed that he is in top form,” Jayawardene told Times Now.

We saw potential in Suryakumar Yadav to bat up the order: Mahela Jayawardene

Mahela Jayawardene further stated that they did not have to put much effort since Suryakumar Yadav was highly motivated and worked on his fitness thoroughly. The 43-year old revealed having challenged the Mumbai-born cricketer in different positions in the batting order and saw the potential to promote him before giving a role as a finisher.

“We didn’t have to do much. SKY was quite motivated, he had the ambition to play for India and he worked towards that. Not just on the field, but off the field as well, he worked on his fitness. In the last three years, we have challenged Surya in different positions up the order. Before that, he was mostly used as a finisher. We saw potential in him to bat up the order,” he added.

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