Ranji Trophy: Suryakumar Yadav finds second wind

On Monday, a completely transformed Surya slammed his second hundred of this Ranji season against Madhya Pradesh putting Mumbai in a strong position on Day 1 at the Wankhede. It was his second ton at his home ground this season and a well-balanced knock from the boy who had earlier been accused of playing rash shots all too often.

When his second season had come undone with a string of low scores, Surya had realised it was time to buck up. He knew he needed to make changes to his game and come to grips with the challenges that would always confront young batsmen. His mother leaned towards superstitious which made Surya change his SUV’s colour from black to yellow, even as Surya found comfort in his family’s encouraging words, tattooing his parents’ faces on his right shoulder.

Bolstered by their support, Surya would decide to grit it out and go about finding his answers on the field. It had dawned on him that he needed to spend more time at the crease and at the same time accept that he would need to leave alone good deliveries. The compulsive shotmaker who would only want to deal in boundaries and sixes needed to check his instinct, and learn that runs could be scored in ones and twos as well.

Another worry was his slack fitness. “I was too careless about fitness. I always thought that I will score my runs with boundaries but things got difficult when I faced the top teams. I soon realised that if I need to score big then I need to rotate strike and for that I need to improve my fitness. After success in the first season and the slump in the second, I went into a shell. But things slowly began to change when I strated focussing on my fitness and shot selection,” Surya says after his hundred.

Success in the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders also came in handy. The Mumbaikar had become their go-to man in crises and soon things started to fall in place for the 24-year-old batsman. He used the confidence from playing those knocks for Kolkata in T20s to construct longer innings, albeit by inculcating more patience.

Post the IPL season, Mumbai had been looking for young blood to lead in Ranji and after the T20 success they found Surya to be their man. Later, Mumbai would win the West Zone one-dayers under him and he’d be handed the reins of the Ranji side in only his third season.

It’s not that he has completely eschewed chasing wide balls, but the ratio of such impetuosity has significantly lessened. He started his innings with two fours off Yogesh Rawat and later struck 19 runs in Sanjay Mishra’s sixth over with four boundaries. He swept left arm spinner Ankit Sharma including a cheeky paddle sweep to the ropes. When MP pacers pitched it wide he would play it late between third slip and gully. Surya alongwith Siddhesh Lad added 130 runs in 179 balls which allowed Mumbai to end their opening day of the four-day game strongly on 375-4.

Brief scores: Mumbai 375/4 in 87 overs (Suryakumar 135, Herwadkar 97, Lad 69 n.o.) vs Madhya Pradesh.