Suryakumar Yadav plays like AB de Villiers at his best, reckons Ravi Shastri

Ever since his debut for the national sides, Suryakumar Yadav has impressed one and all with his consistency. He has scored 1408 T20I runs with a strike rate of 180.97 so far and also played a key role for the team in the recently concluded T20 World Cup. The No. 1 ranked T20I batter has scored 1164 runs with an average of 46.56 and a strike rate of 187.43 being the highest run-scorer in 2022 in the shortest format. 

Ravi Shastri has backed the ace batter for his purple patch comparing him with South African legend AB de Villiers. 

"He is one of the best players in the world, if not the best T20 player. He has got the all-round game and he is devastating. On his day, if he bats 30-40 balls, he'll win you the match because he scores at that pace and he demoralizes the opposition with the kind of shots he plays. He is much like AB de Villiers at his best. When AB played one of those special innings, it deflated the opposition and Surya can do just that," Shastri told Prime Video.

Suryakumar enjoys an impressive T20I record but his ODI stats aren’t that spectacular. The right-handed batter has racked up 378 ODI runs with an average of 34.36. Reflecting on the batter’s ODI numbers, Ravi Shastri stated that he will soon produce a spectacular blitz.

"If you look at the numbers and law of averages, he is bound to have an innings like that. But if he gets past the 15-20-run mark, he makes it count as he showed in some of his earlier innings. So, he backs his ability and attacking instincts. So, when you have those kinds of instincts, every odd inning, he is bound to fail. But when it comes off, it's spectacular,” he opined.