NEW DELHI: Suryakumar Yadav is filled with happiness seeing the camaraderie and support from his fellow players as he embarks on his journey to evolve into a true leader who will guide and inspire the team beyond the responsibilities of cricket captaincy.
Suryakumar, who was made the permanent T20I captain for the first series, displayed exceptional skills and earned the prestigious title of ‘Player of the Series’ with two stellar performances in the first match.
But his contribution went much further as he added extra satisfaction to his achievement by taking two crucial wickets with his off-spin bowling in a nail-biting Super Over win.
“As I said before the series, I don’t want to be a captain, I want to be a leader,” Suryakumar said at the post-match awards ceremony, according to PTI.
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He expressed boundless admiration for his fellow players, who showed extraordinary courage and determination while defending a modest total of 137 points.
“Their skill level and confidence makes my job easier. Their positivity and care for each other is incredible. After the last game, I told some players to rest, but they were ready to sit out.”
“They’ve made my job easy. There’s very little pressure when I come up to bat,” he said.
The India captain said just as people enjoy high scores like 220 and 230, they should also start appreciating low scoring matches as they bring balance to the sport.
“More than the last over, when we were 30/4 and 48 for five, I felt how much grit the boys showed. 140 was a par score on that track. I told them if we gave it our all we could get it done.”
Sri Lanka captain Charith Asaranka could not explain what went wrong with the middle order in all three matches.
“Definitely, it was really disappointing, especially the middle and lower order batting. Very poor shot selection. We thought the spinners were bowling so we let Wanindu Hasaranga come up in the order and gave him permission to hit one or two bounding balls,” Asaranka said.
“I think we hit some bad shots in particular. When the ball gets old, your shot selection has to be precise. There are no excuses and we have to do better than this.”
“I want to see good batting performances in ODIs and I think the players will do better,” added the dejected Sri Lanka captain.