“I know they don’t talk about him, but this guy can play test cricket,” Ravi Shastri backs Suryakumar Yadav to represent India in all three formats of the game
Suryakumar Yadav was a part of India's test squad for a short duration during Shastri's tenure as coach, but now he is only a part of India's white ball squads
The former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri reckons that Suryakumar Yadav can play for India in all three formats of the game and not just in ODI and T20I cricket.
Suryakumar Yadav is one of those rare players who made his debut for India after crossing 30 years of age once he was picked in the T20I side in 2021, he was then immediately picked in the ODI side too, before being added to the test side as a reserve player.
Ravi Shastri was the head coach of India when Suryakumar made his debut in the white ball formats and it was probably on the insistence of the then Indian team management, which Shastri was a part of as well, that SKY was added to the test squad. There was no first-class cricket going on in India at that time because of the pandemic and a couple of players were picked for the test side on the basis of their white-ball form.
Ravi Shastri told me to go and smash it in my first game itself: Suryakumar Yadav
Recently Suryakumar Yadav was interviewed by ICC’s official broadcaster Star Sports and Shastri was present in that interview too, along with the presenter. Shastri said during that interview that he knows the current Indian management doesn’t consider Suryakumar for the red ball format of the game, but he has no doubt that SKY can play red-ball cricket too, and can bat freely at no. 5.
Ravi Shastri backs Suryakumar Yadav to become a No.5 player in Test cricket.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 29, 2022
Suryakumar then narrated a conversation that took place between him and Shastri a day before his T20I debut against England and he revealed that Shastri told him “jaake bindaas dena (go and smash it)”. According to Suryakumar, the freedom that he got from the head coach right before his debut boosted his confidence quite a lot.
Not all Indian fans are, however, convinced by Shastri’s theory that SKY can play all three formats, as they think that Suryakumar has not yet proven himself even in ODI cricket, test cricket is a distant prospect.
