India captain Hardik Pandya was furious with the pitch provided for the second T20I against New Zealand on Sunday and went on to describe it as “a shocker of a wicket”. However, Hardik Pandya's main man in batting, Suryakumar Yadav, disagreed with his skipper, saying that rather than criticizing the surface, both India and New Zealand players should have taken it as a challenge.
“It doesn't matter what soil you play on. These are the things which aren't in you control. Whatever was in our control, we did in the last game. And we had to apply and adapt whatever we got. Also, it was an exciting game. No matter what the condition or the format is, if both teams try to have a good competition…wicket shouldn't matter a lot. You go out there, have a challenge, accept it and move on,” Suryakumar Yadav told reporters on the eve of the third T20I in Ahmedabad.
“It is completely fine. But we had a chat later on and it was like whatever we get in the future we will go on with it,” Suryakumar Yadav added.
Suryakumar Yadav's remarks came after Hardik Pandya slammed the pitches on offer during the ongoing T20I series against the Black Caps, declaring that the home team shouldn't be playing on rank turners if they were looking at winning the T20 World Cup in the United States next year.
Suryakumar Yadav, known for his explosive 360-degree batting in the shortest format of the sport, played a rather unusual knock in the second T20I against New Zealand in Lucknow on Sunday.
On a pitch that was a rank-turner, it was Suryakumar Yadav’s unbeaten knock of 26 runs off 31 deliveries that made all the difference in the match as India managed to secure a six-wicket win over the Kiwis, thus leveling the series at 1-1.
The match in Uttar Pradesh turned out to be a low-scoring thriller. Batting first New Zealand put 99 runs on the board, with every Indian bowler barring Shivam Mavi picking up at least one wicket. In reply, India managed to finish off the game on the penultimate delivery with Suryakumar Yadav hitting the winning boundary.
“To be honest, it was a shocker of a wicket. Both the games we have played on so far. I don’t mind difficult wickets. I am all up for that, but these two wickets are not made for T20. Somewhere down the line the curators or the grounds that we are going to play in should make sure they prepare the pitches earlier,” Hardik Pandya said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Even 120 would have been a winning total. Bowlers – they stuck to their plans and ensured they did not rotate the strike. We kept rotating the spinners. Dew didn’t play much part in this. They were able to spin the ball more than us. It was carrying through well. It was a shocker of a wicket,” Hardik Pandya added.
Reportedly Hardik Pandya's strong remarks led to the sacking of the Lucknow curator.
Besides the controversy over the pitch at the Ekana Stadium, Hardik Pandya faced the heat over dubious decisions in the match, including not allowing Yuzvendra Chahal to bowl his full quota of four overs.
“Chahal is your No.1 spinner in the T20 format. Asking him to bowl only two overs where he got the wicket of Finn Allen and not using his quota of four overs makes no sense to me. Yes you want to give chances to young guys line Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi. But then you could have bowled Chahal in the last or second-last over,” Gautam Gambhir told Star Sports.
“For me, Hardik missed a trick as Chahal could have helped India bowl New Zealand for around 80-85. On this kind of a wicket, you don’t want to let the opposition off the hook. But then again, I was surprised after Deepak Hooda was asked to bowl four overs and not Chahal,” Gautam Gambhir explained.
Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav, the top-ranked batter in T20Is, was recently asked about the secret behind staying calm during tense moments during matches.
A reporter in Gujarat on Tuesday quipped Surya about how he could still be smiling when wickets were falling around him in the previous T20I. Suryakumar Yadav reminded him that the T20I series began in Jharkhand, and he must have caught the MS Dhoni effect.
“T20 Ranchi me chalu huya tha toh calm attitude udhar se hi aaya (T20 series started in Ranchi so maybe that calm attitude came from there). But I guess a lot of domestic cricket which I played before making my international debut, that has helped me a lot. Because the grind that we have there, we play on difficult conditions, challenging tracks and you have to apply yourselves, so whatever I have learned there I have carried it here. Rest whatever I have learned is by watching the senior players and talking to them about how they tackle various difficult situations,” Suryakumar Yadav said.
The final T20I match of the three-game series between India and New Zealand will be contested in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
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