South African legend Dale Steyn reckons the leadership responsibility has hardly made any impact on Suryakumar Yadav’s batting. The Indian middle-order batter was appointed as the T20I captain following the conclusion of the ICC ODI World Cup in the absence of senior players like Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya.
After successfully overcoming the first assignment against Australia on home soil, Surya is currently in South Africa, leading the Men in Blue in a three-match T20I series. After he slammed a blazing half-century in the second game on Tuesday, Steyn showered immense praise on Surya for not changing his batting approach even after becoming the captain of the team.
READ MORE: IND vs SA, 2nd T20I: Rinku Singh Hits His Maiden Half-century in International Cricket
Surya came to bat in a crunch situation when India had already lost a couple of early wickets with only six runs on the board. Despite handling the pressure with composure, Surya came up with a counter-attacking mindset, taking down the South African bowlers with some spectacular strikes.
The Indian skipper whacked as many as five boundaries and three maximums off 36 balls en route to his 56-run knock. On the back of his innings, Surya also became the joint-fastest Indian batter to complete 2000 runs in T20Is alongside Virat Kohli, who also needed 56 innings to reach the milestone. Riding on Surya’s power-packed batting, India produced a worth-fighting total of 180 runs in 19.3 overs when rain played a spoilsport at St George’s Oval.
After South Africa secured a 5-wicket victory (DLS method) in the rain-affected encounter, Dale Steyn spoke about Suryakumar Yadav’s performance during the post-match show. In a chat with Star Sports, the former pacer said, “He (Surya) got a lot of shots and he makes it look really easy. Sometimes it is a burden being a captain. There’s a lot that you have to think of, and it can sometimes change how you play your game.”
According to Steyn, Surya’s aggressive approach certainly benefitted the team as the South African bowlers could not produce more damage due to the pressure. “Surya walked out there at six for two and he was still able to continue striking it for almost 200. That shows you that he’s not going to change the style in which he scores his runs. He’s not going to change the approach. And that looks like a good thing for India going forward. Because you know that he’s always going to be aggressive. So the opposition is not going to be able to run in there,” Steyn explained further.
Apart from Surya, Rinku Singh was the only other standout batter for India in the second T20I. The youngster put up a thunderous show and scored an unbeaten 68 off 39 balls, a knock that comprised 9 fours and 2 sixes. With South Africa leading the series 1-0, Team India will be desperate to bounce back in the third T20I, slated to be played on December 14 in Johannesburg.
