South Africa pacer Vernon Philander faced a severe social media backlash for calling India batter Suryakumar Yadav a ā€œkidā€ on Twitter.

Surprisingly, Vernon Philander's comments came in appreciation of Suryakumar Yadav's recent performances, including a match-winning knock of 69 off 36 deliveries against Australia in the last T20I at Hyderabad on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Suryakumar Yadav once again powered India to a comfortable eight-wicket triumph over South Africa in the first T20I of the three-match series in Thiruvananthapuram. The 32-year-old batsman who has been in red-hot form of late, struck a quickfire unbeaten 50 off 33 balls, including three sixes and five boundaries.

ā€œThis kid can play. Wow exciting to watch Suryakumar Yadav,ā€ Vernon Philander wrote on Twitter.

However, Vernon Philander's choice of words wasn't much appreciated by Indian fans on social media as they trolled the South African for labeling Suryakumar Yadav a ā€œkidā€, considering the India batter is just five years younger than him.

On the other hand, a few netizens were extremely critical of Vernon Philander's remarks as they claimed that as far as performances go, Suryakumar Yadav is the Proteas speedster's ā€œdaddyā€.

Earlier, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting revealed the turning point of Suryakumar Yadav's career.

ā€œWhen I was in Mumbai, he was an 18-19-year-old kid, a young man. He was in our squad not quite getting a game. The year after I left, he was traded to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) where his career started to turn around. He got a bit of an opportunity in the middle order and then MI bought him back in the auction and has been a match-winning player for them for five or six seasons now, to the point that he is one of their retained playersā€, Ricky Ponting told ICC.

Meanwhile, in a recent interaction with Hindustan Times, Suryakumar Yadav spoke about his mindset in the middle and why he's always looking to smash the ball out of the park.

ā€œThe mindset has always been the same since I started playing, it just got a good direction to it. Nothing has changed. I always enjoy it (fearless approach). When I made my debut for Mumbai as well, the only thing which came to my mind was attack. At that time also, I used to feel attack is the best defence,ā€ Suryakumar said

ā€œSo, it kept building from that and slowly when I came into this set-up, I realised what my game was, how I can be a little different which can help my team from unreal situations, and I wanted to be a little different. I wanted to be batting in difficult situations and I wanted to be that factor a team is always looking for,ā€ he added.

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Notably, Suryakumar Yadav was dealing with stomach issues ahead of India's final T20I against Australia in Hyderabad but somehow managed to recover on time to feature in the game.

ā€œThere was a little issue. The weather changed and now we have started traveling as well. So I had a stomach ache and then fever,ā€ Suryakumar Yadav told teammate Axar Patel in an interview posted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

ā€œAt the same time, I knew this one is the decider. So I told my doctor and physio, ā€˜If this would've been the World Cup final, then how will I react? I canā€™t sit like this.' So I told them, ā€˜do anything ā€” give me any medicine, injection ā€” do everything you can to get me fit for the game. (And) once you have worn the jersey and are on the ground then the emotion is different,'ā€ Suryakumar Yadav said.

The Mumbai Indians batter also talked about his knock in Hyderabad where he stitched together a huge partnership with Virat Kohli to bail India out of a precarious situation and also explained why he decided to take on the Australian bowlers before he lost his wicket for 69.

ā€œIn that situation, it was much needed. I thought let's take my chance. There were two-three shots in my mind, was trying to hit over mid-off. Thoughts have always been the same, have always wanted to express myself. That's how I practice in the nets. Just loving at No.4. A lot of challenges and responsibilities as well [for the T20 WC]. You can't shy away from expressing yourself. Have to be smart,ā€ he concluded.

Suryakumar Yadav will return to action on Sunday when India will take on South Africa in the second T20I in Guwahati.

India squad for South Africa T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed.