The audience at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot turned out to be really fortunate as they witnessed the rampage created by Suryakumar Yadav on Saturday. The 32-year-old batter tamed Sri Lanka bowlers and hit them at every corner of the ground to bring up his third T20I ton. He remained unbeaten at 112 off just 51 balls, consisting of nine sixes and seven fours. His knock helped Team India to pull off a comfortable 91-run victory and claim the three-match series 2-1. Suryakumar has been the talk of the town since then and has received big praises.
Former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar also could not hide his emotions and praised the batter in a very symbolic way. Bangar said on Star Sports, "If you want to do Surya Namaskar, there are 12 steps. If you divide the 360-degree cricket field by 12, he gives his taste to every area. Whether it is fine leg, cover or the point region, he plays amazing shots in all directions."
"He gives pleasure and gives every Indian a sense of pride that such a fantastic player is in the Indian camp because he is a once-in-a-generation player, especially in this format," he added.
With his unbeaten third T20I century, Suryakumar rewrote the history books. He became the fastest player to reach 1,500 runs in the shortest format in terms of balls taken. The right-handed batter took only 843 balls to reach this landmark in T20I cricket, the fastest among all players. He is the third-fastest to reach the 1,500-run mark in T20Is in terms of innings.
The fastest batters to reach the landmark in terms of innings are Indian batters Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Australian veteran Aaron Finch and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who all took 39 innings to score 1,500 runs in T20Is. Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammed Rizwan reached the milestone in 42 innings and Suryakumar did so in 43 innings.
(With ANI Inputs)