For Surya, The 50-Over Game Is A Different Shade Of White

The 32-year-old is the world's best T20 batter but one-day cricket hasn't been very kind to him

- Sanjjeev K Samyal

MUMBAI: It was a sluggish pitch, the kind that has troubled Indian batters all series. But Suryakumar Yadav didn't let that slow him down.

In the third T20I between India and West Indies in Guyana, Yadav brought his A game to the park and helped make what could have been a difficult 160-run chase seem relatively easy. In a masterful exhibition, he blasted 83 off 44 balls as India won the match by seven wickets and kept themselves alive in the series.

Coming into Tuesday's game, the Indian team had looked like a stuttering, disjointed outfit. However, Yadav's brilliance transformed it into a well-oiled machine.

The knock showed the kind of difference the Mumbai batter can make with his auda stroke play and it was also a reminder of why the team management is investing so heavily in him in a bid to make him a regular part of their 50-over set-up.

For the world's No. 1 T20 batter, adapting to the ODI format was expected to be a natural transformation and with uncertainty surrounding the availability of Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid are banking on Yadav to come to the party. They know if he gets going, he can be devastating.

But frustratingly for the team management and the player himself, the experiment hasn't been a success so far. Somehow, hasn't figured out the right tempo. He has played 26 ODIS so far and averages only 24.33.