T20 World Cup 2022: Is Suryakumar Yadav the strongest batsman at the fourth position for India?

The two World Cups that India won under MS Dhoni had the service of Yuvraj Singh at his best, but after his cancer, the pursuit for another player with such calibre started, which looks to end here at the 2022 T20I World Cup. Here is a list of India's batters at the number four position in the last four T20I World Cups.

Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh was India's middle-order lynchpin, who used to form valuable partnerships with players at different levels. He played a significant role for India in the middle order since 2007 and gave the team flying knocks to win matches. Coming off battling cancer, he competed in subsequent World Cups until 2016, but his power-hitting capabilities significantly declined. In 28 innings of the T20 World Cup, he accumulated 593 runs with a strike rate of 128.91. In the shortest format, he holds an average of 31.64.

MS Dhoni

He is one of the most loved cricketers who turned the waves of many matches with his leadership skills, exceptional work with gloves, and stunning match finishing capabilities. Cricket pundits admired him for every tactical move on the field. Coming in middle-order from number three to six, depending on the need of the match, his highest performing strike rate of 153.61 came at fourth position, averaging 51. 

Suresh Raina

The attacking left-handed batter who defined a new era of cricketers was an electrifying player on the field. He was a prodigious run-scorer for India. He majorly played in the third to sixth spot for India in mega-tournaments and accumulated most of his runs playing in third and fourth place. In the World Cup, he carried a strike rate of 130.17 and an average of 25.16 while playing in the middle order. 

Suryakumar Yadav

A player who made his debut 18 months ago, and becoming the first pick batter in the Indian T20I team is quite a feat to achieve, touched by Suryakumar Yadav. He has a yen for making batting look easy at any position he plays. But there's something special about his power-hitting while playing at number four. 

Playing at the fourth position, he has scored 492 runs in 15 matches with a spell-bounding strike rate of 182.89, which consists of one hundred and three half-centuries. In the 2021 World cup, batting at number four, he had a strike rate of 144.82 and an average of 42. 

While MS Dhoni had the healthiest average playing at 4th position amongst most of the recent and former cricketers, Suryakumar Yadav's skyrocketing strike rate at the spot has made him one of the strongest batters India could get at number four.