Asia Cup 2023: Suryakumar Yadav not clear in his head about how to score runs in middle-overs, says Sanjay Bangar

Former Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar feels Suryakumar Yadav is not clear in his head about how to score runs in middle-overs in the ODI format, which is leading to his downfall. Despite low returns in the 50-overs version, SKY was picked in India’s 15-man squad for the upcoming World Cup on Tuesday.

In 26 ODIs, SKY has scored only 511 runs at an average of 24.33 and he hasn’t been able to grab his opportunity in the 50-overs version.

Yadav has been batting at his best in the T20I format and he has shown the skills to turn the match on its head. But SKY is yet to take the ODI format by storm and he will look to deliver the goods in the ODI showpiece.

In fact, SKY himself recently admitted his ODI numbers are not good and the ODI format is the most challenging for him.

While SKY has found life easy in the T20I format, where every batter is expected to hit the ground running, he hasn’t yet cracked the code on how to be successful in the ODI version.

“He has already said that Rahul Dravid is there, and he has spoken to him. The biggest factor is that boundaries don’t come that easily in the middle part of the innings. When three or four wickets go, then how do you find the boundaries is the big problem because the ball becomes old? In a T20 match, the ball remains solid for the entire innings. In ODIs, in the last five overs for each team, the ball becomes soft because of which you don’t get boundaries that easily,” Bangar told Star Sports.

“And the second thing is, every batsman needs to find that formula on how to score runs. And Suryakumar Yadav is a versatile player, that he definitely targets boundaries and where to hit them. He has a very good idea of where to hit them, but if there is one thing he needs to do, it is to find out how to bat between the 25th and the 40th over. I don’t think he is clear in his head and heart about how to score runs in this period.

“He can play like he does in the T20 format, but if wickets fall, he needs to find out how to rotate strike between the 25th and the 40th over, and he needs to find his own method to score runs here which he is obviously thinking about.”

Bangar added that SKY should not be given chances by the team’s think tank in the playing XI for the sake of giving him game time but they should back the right combination.

“According to me, if the team has an opening where he can play, he definitely should. But to put him in the starting eleven only for him to get game time, I don’t think the team needs to do all of that. I feel that Rohit and Rahul (Dravid) will be thinking the same thing. I think they will play only with batsmen who make the proper combinations, and who make the final starting eleven, they should get most of the playing time.

And whatever preparation they have in the nets, there are a lot of resources which can help them. So with that they can prepare and train and continue the momentum, but now is not the stage to experiment and play a player only to get game time and change the combination just for that,” he added.

India will play against Pakistan in the Super Fours of the Asia Cup on Sunday.