Before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup begins on February 7, former wicketkeeper batter Parthi Patel has backed struggling Suryakumar Yadav to regain his rhythm and form. In the opening Twenty20 International against New Zealand, the Indian captain had a brief appearance.
After losing to the Blackcaps in an ODI series, the Men in Blue recovered well. Abhishek Sharma’s incredible performance of 84 runs off just 35 balls helped the hosts, who were assigned to bat first, wreak havoc with the bat and score a massive total of 238 in their 20 overs.
Suryakumar Yadav produced a respectable knock as well, despite having a terrible batting season in 2025.
After considering the right-hander’s batting strategy, the assistant coach for the Gujarat Titans said that Suryakumar Yadav merely has to spend time in the middle in order to have a good innings.
“Knowing that runs are coming from one end gives you a lot of advantages. Suryakumar Yadav must take his time after that. We speak about runs, of course, but Suryakumar needs to spend time in the middle of these five Twenty20 International matches,” Patel stated on Star Sports.
“He claims that he is batting well. That indicates that he is content, but you need to run behind him. It doesn’t take that long for a batter of this calibre to play 20 and 40 balls in the subsequent game. He doesn’t appear to require the full series to get back to his previous level of performance. He only needs one inning, and this is most likely the beginning,” he said.
Harbhajan Singh supports Suryakumar Yadav
Legendary off-spinner Harbhajan Singh also joined Patel in supporting the Mumbai batting during the same discussion. He thinks that Suryakumar bats in this manner, and that everyone has a lean career path.
“From what I’ve observed of his career, he has only been batting like this. You frequently experience such difficult situations. Never allow yourself to question if you are competent enough or whether you are making mistakes,” he advised.
India won the first match by 48 runs after totally dominating the Kiwis. Ahead of the international competition, they will now want to maintain the winning trend.
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