When Suryakumar Yadav stepped up to bat for the first time in an international game, gently wrapping his arms around and guarding the field harshly, Jofra Archer looked down menacingly from the top of his run, his fingers firmly wrapped over the ball’s seam and his body. bowed like a prize horse about to be unscrewed. It thundered in its stride, gaining strength earlier, with a sudden swirl of limbs and arm speed and a terrifying thrust from the shoulders, unleashing lightning toward midfield.
Yadav, facing his first international cricket ball, ending what seemed like an eternity of longing, seemed completely frozen. Only, when the ball bounced from midfield, he took a firm stride to the sides to cover the ball line, then threw his front pad into the air like a gymnast and hit it over the thin leg ropes. . A more brutally brilliant shot that he couldn’t have landed since the first ball of his international career. There was both brilliance and beauty.
The beauty of the stroke was that it made it look too natural. There was no indication of premeditation or a release of suppressed nervous energy or a feeling of excess sharpness. There was calm, a sense of belonging and a pure and spontaneous joy. His eyes kept tracking the ball until he settled into an empty seat in the stands. At that precise moment, he would have whistled through the air and whispered, “Maza aatha hain, you shot khelne mein (I really enjoy playing this take).”
This is Yadav’s usual answer to why he loves certain strokes. Like the jerk he just pulled, or the sweep that swept through Adil Rashid. Of the six limits and three sixes that he stroked at night, each was a sight worthy of independent value and description. Don’t forget the inside-out six on the cover of Adil Rashid’s bug, against the spin and the ball drifting a bit, or Sam Curran’s slap, the ball before it perished. He wears boldness on his sleeve, but without arrogance.
Archer shouldn’t say he wasn’t warned. A few months ago, at an IPL match, he had picked up a ball in reverse after being hit in the helmet. The way he described that exchange in a recent interview for The Indian Express, sheds light on his batting ability and psyche: “When I got hit in the helmet, I said a limit or six toh marna that I have. Meine khaya hai toh tumko bhi khana patroga. (I told myself that I have to hit him a four or a six. They hit me, now I’ll hit you). I went to Hardik and said yeh wala stroke banta hai kya? (Will this hit work?). He said, it’s completely up to you, and whatever you think, just answer it. I told myself that if this ball is thrown here, I will go back. I wanted to do something different. “And he did unfold one of the tournament shots.
Again, he emphasized at the end of the answer: “Maza aaya tha. (I enjoyed it) ”As much as a mace, he betrayed a streak of combativeness that lurks beneath his normally calm exterior. If it weren’t for this virtue, it might have burned your India dreams long ago. He probed, persisted, and improved, thus realizing the dream that he had nursed all his life.
Suryakumar Yadav reached fifty on his debut. (BCCI)
There are other things in cricket that fill you with joy too. How to face real rapids in the networks. “When I was at KKR, we had Umesh (Yadav) and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Then in Mumbai Indians we have Jasprit Bumrah, the best fast bowler in the world, then Lasith Malinga and Trent Boult. I don’t miss the opportunity to face them online and I really look forward to this challenge every year. I used to enjoy playing with them on the networks, ”he explained. It could be a classic IPL case study that develops the entire single player game.
Or sweeping the daylights of the spinners. “Where I played cricket, there were a lot of spinning courts and good spinners, so I had to learn to play sweep. Then the stroke became a habit, ”he said.
When he says how much he loves to play a particular shot, you can feel his joy and enthusiasm, as if he were still a wet teenager and not a very experienced 30-year veteran. “It is this love of the game that has sustained me throughout my life, both through my good days and my bad,” he said.
He would have gotten a lot of joy from how he maintained a healthy hitting rate even after power plays, an aspect of the game that Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene had advised him to improve. In fact, it was better post-powerplay. In the field restrictions period, he scored 16 of 11; in the non-powerplay overs, he shot 41 of 20 balls. “He said just one thing, as long as you’re hitting after the power play, just try to hit a lot of holes, take two at a time, run hard between the grounds and there will be no pressure and the hit rate will also be amazing,” He recalled the conversation. .
As often as boundaries sprang from his sword, he did not forget the sneaky bachelors and the windy two. So much so that he played only a couple of point balls after the powerplay overs. His better physical condition (losing 12kg in three intense months of dieting and training during the run) ensured that he did not tire towards the end. There is style and steel in his game.
Before long, he also showed prowess in dealing with the demands of the situation, such as avoiding risks after the successive departure of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. He kept the innings coupled with the assertiveness of an expert hand that has seen it all, and at no point did he betray that he was a first-time hitter in international cricket. It is far too absurd to suggest that he is the key to unlocking the riddle in the middle, but a sense of belonging and a sense of calm and tranquility was evident that heralds a longer international stay. And that he gets a lot of mace in every little thing he does on a cricket ground.
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.