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Mohammed Kaif advised Suryakumar Yadav to not ‘hide within the dugout’ amid poor T20I form, urging him to bat higher and face challenges.
Suryakumar Yadav has struggled for runs in 2025.
(AFP Photo)
Former India batter Mohammed Kaif advised the incumbent T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav to not ‘hide within the dugout’ in his try and overturn his form within the format.
Kaif’s remark got here after the Mumbaikar managed only 12 (11) while batting at number 4 within the third T20I against South Africa in Dharamshala on Sunday. That made it only 213 runs at a modest strike-rate of 125.29 and a mean of 14.20 for him in 2025. No full-member nation’s captain has crossed 200 T20I runs in a calendar yr with a worse batting average.
Kaif said Suryakumar must have taken the plunge and batted at number three within the comfortable 188-run chase, as a substitute of sending Tilak Varma ahead of him.
“Questions are about his form,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel. “He has been a very good player; hence, questions are about his form. He had a very good opportunity to bat and stay not out, which might have been good for the remaining T20Is before the World Cup. One innings can transform a player into a distinct player. When Tilak Varma was sent at No.3, cameras were at Suryakumar Yadav,” he continued.
“When confidence is down, there are second thoughts, whether I should exit to bat or not. But you’ve to be brave. You’ll be able to’t hide within the dugout if you must make a comeback. You’ve got to face that challenge to rise from that phase. Suryakumar Yadav has done that, but he had a very good probability within the third T20I. When he did come out to bat, there have been hardly runs to be scored. Even when he had remained not-out, he couldn’t have made greater than 20 runs. If he batted at number three, there was a probability Surya could have made not less than 40 runs,” Kaif added.
A relentless change within the batting position has been a theme of Suryakumar’s yr, with the skipper batted at number three ten times and eight times at number 4. Even within the last T20I against South Africa, India sent all-rounder Axar Patel ahead of him.
On his part, Suryakumar rejected that he was ‘off form’ in any respect after the match, citing how ‘beautifully’ he was batting within the nets and boasting confidence that match runs would follow soon.
Click here so as to add News18 as your chosen news source on Google. December 15, 2025, 08:53 IST
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