Last Updated:
Suryakumar Yadav has admitted that he never ‘understood’ ODI cricket, a damning take considering he was a starter in the 2023 ODI World Cup and scored 18 off 28 in the final.
Suryakumar Yadav takes a lap of the Narendra Modi Stadium while celebrating T20 World Cup triumph. (AP Photo)
India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav has admitted that he never ‘understood’ the ODI format of the sport, saying that he tried his best but found it exceedingly ‘challenging’. Suryakumar, who was part of India’s 2023 World Cup squad, attributed his opinion to the batting versatility required in the 50-over game, where adapting to different situations is almost as important as talent and skill.
Suryakumar’s last ODI match was the 2023 ODI World Cup final. Although he buried some ghosts of that match in Ahmedabad last Sunday by winning the 2026 T20 World Cup at the same ground, his comments just make his selection for the 2023 World Cup more damning. Despite having an average of 26 after 34 ODI innings, he was India’s finisher. He scored 18 off 28 in the final, which cost them the match.
“I feel that as much as I have experienced ODI cricket closely and I have seen it, it is a format where you have to bat in three different ways,” Suryakumar told PTI. “Sometimes, if you go in early, if wickets fall quickly, then you have to bat like Test cricket. Then you have to bat with a good strike rate, like in a one-day, and then later at the end of the innings, you have to bat like (you do in T20 format. So, that is one format that I never understood. I tried my best to play it. But then it’s a challenging format,” he said.
The same goes for his Test career. He was randomly called up for the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India and dropped after just one match. Suryakumar called it fate that T20 became his best format.
“…what is written in your life, you get that only. I started with red-ball cricket itself, played Ranji Trophy for 10-12 years. I played a lot of red-ball cricket in Bombay because if you grow up in Bombay, you start with red ball itself, so everything is around red ball,” he said. “But gradually, when we started playing white ball cricket, the inclination shifted a bit towards that. And after that, I came to this format (T20). I also tried a lot in One-Day cricket to play well in it, but nothing happened there,” he said.
“T20 mein jaisa chal raha tha, usme apna haath set ho gaya hai, aisa bol sakte hain” (The way T20 was working out for me, I had become good at it; you can say that),” he added.
March 16, 2026, 15:23 IST
Read More
