T20 World Cup 2022: Are India too reliant on Suryakumar Yadav?

And while their fate had, in truth, already been sealed, it was nice to watch Suryakumar Yadav at his swashbuckling best before the knockout stages. 

The Mumbai batsman has been a revelation at the international level. He has been an explosive batsman for the Indian middle order and has been frighteningly consistent. 

In 2022, he scored over 1000 runs, all while batting at a strike rate of 180. That’s madness, no matter which way you look at it. 

However, it raises a question as to whether India has been too reliant on the man nicknamed ‘SKY’ for their big runs this year.

The answer to that is yes. Throughout 2022, there have been questioning remarks over the form of three of India’s top-order batsmen – KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. 

KL Rahul’s case hasn’t been helped by injury issues depriving him of game time, whereas Rohit Sharma’s form has deserted him at a time when he seems hell-bent on batting aggressively no matter the situation of the bowler in front of him. 

Virat Kohli’s struggles are well-documented at this point, although it is worth noting that the former India skipper is the top run-getter in the T20 World Cup. 

Yet before the Asia Cup, there were significant question marks over how Virat Kohli could get his form back – or if he even could scale the lofty peaks of the past few years ever again. 

SKY has been the glue that has held the team together even as he has rediscovered his form and scored crucial runs. 

Suryakumar Yadav is a unique player. Not only is he unafraid of taking risks, but his approach also throws off most bowlers, mainly because it is hard to plan for a batsman like him. 

And he’s figured out a way to score lots of runs and them quickly. That is why he has become a lynchpin of the Indian batting line-up. 

Yet while Virat Kohli has stepped up, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have not. And that has made India reliant on SKY for runs and getting them out of tight spots more often than not. 

As superhuman as SKY may seem, he is a human and will be prone to poor performances or even being found out on occasion. 

So far, that hasn’t happened too often, but there is every reason to feel worried about what happens when it does. 

Virat Kohli is still run-machine par excellence, but he doesn’t possess Suryakumar Yadav’s ability to regularly find the boundary with well-taken fours or unorthodox shots for six. 

KL Rahul has yet to find the form that would trouble big teams, whereas Rohit Sharma hasn’t seen any throughout the tournament. 

The leading man is SKY as far as India is concerned, and if he is found, it might just spell trouble for India in the future.