Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting heaped praises on India's top-ranked batter Suryakumar Yadav. Meanwhile, Ponting raised comparisons of Surya with former South African batter AB de Villiers. Surya has been excellent this year in the T20I format especially. In 12 matches, he has scored 428 runs at an average of 38.90 with an impressive strike rate of 189.38.
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He has scored two half-centuries and one century this year already. Moreover, he advances to second place in the ICC T20I rankings for batters, only behind Pakistan's Babar Azam. The 31-year-old has played different roles from opening the innings to finishing the innings and putting up impactful performances.
Ponting mentioned the way Yadav plays a lot of 360-degree shots, similar to AB de Villiers, and noted the variety of shots the Mumbaikar possesses.
He went to note the strengths of Yadav on the leg side and felt that fast bowling or spin was not going to bother him much. He added that the best position for Yadav to bat is at number four given his destructiveness in the final overs although he can open if needed.
"Surya hits really well over the leg side and flicks to deep backward square particularly well": Ricky Ponting
"Surya (Yadav) scores 360 degrees around the ground, a bit like AB de Villiers did when he was in his prime. The lap shots, the late cuts, you know, the ramps over the keeper's head. He can hit down the ground. Surya hits really well over the leg side and flicks to deep backward square particularly well. He is a good player of fast bowling and a good player of spin bowling. He's a very, very exciting player and I'm sure someone that's going to find himself in their team, not just their squad,"
Ponting was quoted as saying by TOI
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"For Surya, it's one, two, or four. I think he can open, but I think he's probably, you know if you could probably just keep him away from the new ball, let him control the middle part of the game outside the Powerplay, through in the middle, and if he's in at the end, you know what can happen. I think number four is his best spot," he added.