Former KKR captain Gautam Gambhir regrets not giving Suryakumar Yadav an ideal batting position, says 'A leader's role is to identify the best...'

Suryakumar Yadav is currently the number-one batter in the T20Is and is one of the best batter in the format India has produced. But his journey has been quite struggling as he hade to wait till 2021 to make his international debut at the age of 31. He received an international call-up when he started batting at number three for Mumbai Indians (MI) and became one of the key members of the franchise. Before joining MI, he was with the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) team from 2014 to 2017 but didn’t get enough opportunities up the order.

Gautam Gambhir on his regret as skipper

Speaking on Suryakumar’s stint with KKR, former skipper Gautam Gambhir admitted that KKR had not identified his potential and didn't give him an ideal batting position. He said that it would be his biggest regret in the captaincy tenure.

“A leader’s role is to identify the best potential and show it to the world. If there is one regret I have in my seven years of captaincy is that me and as a team never managed to use Suryakumar Yadav to the best of his potential. And the reason was down to combinations. You can only play one player at No.3. And as a leader, you have to think about the other 10 players in the XI as well. He would have been way more effective at No.3 but was equally good at No.7”, Gambhir said on Sportskeeda. 

Gambhir was captain of the KKR franchise from 2011 to 2017 and during his stint KKR won the two titles in 2012 and 2014. He joined the franchise as a mentor in 2024.

 

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Suryakumar Yadav as vice-captain

The former KKR skipper further revealed why Suryakumar was appointed as the vice-captain in 2015 and praised him as a ‘team man’.

 

“He was also a team man. Anyone can be a good player, but being a team man is a difficult task. Whether you play him at No.6 or 7 or bench him, he was always smiling and always ready to perform for the team. That is why we appointed him as the vice-captain”, he added.

 

The 33-year-old batter used to bat at number six or seven for KKR and scored 608 runs in 54 matches with only one half-century.

 

Suryakumar Yadav IPL 2024 performance

Notably, MI batter Suryakumar has scored 345 runs in 10 matches at an average of 38.33 and a strike rate of 169.95 in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 so far.
 

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