Rajkot: Team India head coach Rahul Dravid hailed Suryakumar Yadav's scintillating unbeaten 112-run knock against Sri Lanka in the T20I series decider here, and jokingly said that the 32-year-old batter had "never seen him bat" when he was a young kid.
"I have someone here with me, who I am sure, as a young kid, didn't watch me bat. And I hope you did," Dravid said in a video posted by BCCI.tv. To which the star batter replied, "I did".
Suryakumar produced an unbeaten 51-ball century. His knock laced with nine sixes and seven maximums. It was the second-fastest ton in men's T20Is by an Indian batter following Rohit Sharma's 35-ball effort against the same opposition back in 2017. Suryakumar's efforts helped India beat Sri Lanka by 91-runs in the third and final T20 to clinch a 2-1 series win.
Dravid further asked Suryakumar, "Surya, exceptional. The form that you have been in - every time I think I have not seen a better T20 innings, you show us something even better. Of all these innings that you have played over the last year that I have had the privilege of watching and enjoying, can you pick one or two that is the best?"
Suryakumar replied: "Actually, I enjoyed batting in all the difficult situations where I went into bat. I actually can't pick any one innings. It is actually difficult for me to pick any one innings. I just enjoyed myself, whatever I did in the last one year. I have been doing the same thing again. As I said before as well, I just try and enjoy and express myself as much as possible. In those difficult situations, teams try to pull the game off. I try to take the game on. If it works well for me and the team, I'm happy."
Suryakumar's unbeaten ton in Rajkot was his third in the T20Is in seven months, making him the first player in history to score three T20I centuries as a middle-order batter.
