One of the great experiences of T20 cricket for the audience is the players playing new shots that have never been seen before. If AB de Villiers is number 1, who is a 360-degree player, Suryakumar Yadav, who is currently giving such a treat to the fans, is no exaggeration.
Suryakumar Yadav’s recent century against England in the last match of the T20 series is the first proof of this. The boundaries he read square off the wicket on both sides in that match were amazing and a wonderful experience. A conventional drive or toss on a ball coming off the off-stump is likely to be dismissed; But watch the ball up close and see how he flicks it, rips it and throws it away…that’s a really big imaginative shot.
When he plays that shot on both sides, the opposition cannot stop the fielder at that spot. Because if you stop there, it’s even more dangerous that there will be no fielders in one or two places where other regular shots go.
Suryakumar Yadav’s shots are similar to Dhoni’s helicopter shot. But, it’s not the helicopter shot of Dhoni in print. What Dhoni used for the helicopter shot was the art of swinging the bat around a full round of the bat for a boundary or six when the opposition bowlers bowled a yorker length or full length without giving much room. Dhoni did it effortlessly. Now Suryakumar Yadav has shown another improvement in that shot. That means flicking the Audi like a helicopter shot.
Dhoni’s chopper shot goes to long-on while Suryakumar Yadav’s chopper flick goes to midwicket. Suryakumar Yadav’s feet stand apart while playing this shot, he also played this same shot at mid-off against England. The first time we saw this in him was in a match there against the May Islands Abbott McCoy, a May Islands bowler who moved to the off-stump and lifted both legs to hit the ball over midwicket for a six, to everyone including the May Islands bowler and fielders. Shock.
Aljari has hit the same shot at the pinleg against Joseph. A sort of helicopter flick scoop shot. All this shot is to develop a method of scoring runs by using the pace of the bowler to his advantage.
England’s Ally Pope plays another amazing shot like Suryakumar Yadav. He has used it twice against Afghan spin genius Rashid Khan and against Pakistan’s Shadab Khan.
That is, what a right-handed batter would do when playing a sweep shot, is to throw his left leg forward, but Ally Pope, being a right-handed batsman, strangely throws his right leg forward and plays a normal, traditional sweep shot. How this happened is still a mystery. It’s not necessarily practicing; Instinctive, natural swing shots.
Also Suryakumar Yadav uses his brilliant new type of batting against the short pitch bowling strategy of the opponents. Moves slightly off-stump and hooks with full force at long leg, or scoops and tosses. Don’t know what to use when. Players who play unexpected shots like this are always a threat to the opposition. They will win the competition from any position. Surya would have almost chased England’s 221 runs that day. But unfortunately India lost the match.
It is not known whether Australia’s big stadiums will support his new type of shots in the upcoming T20 World Cup. But, given the big ground, Suryakumar can be expected to make good use of the gap. In this T20 World Cup, if the opposition is afraid of the batting of the Indian team, it is not too much if it is because of Suryakumar Yadav’s new type of batting.