India T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav recently made a very public plea on the Vimal Kumar podcast to Proteas legend AB de Villiers to help him balance formats. SKY had revealed that he would ask for insights on how to balance his T20Is and 50-over game since AB has dominated both during his playing days.
To give context to SKY’s request, while he is the leader in the shortest format for India, he is not in the fray for the ODI or the Test team. However, with two World Cups lined up in the next two years (2026 T20WC and 2027 ODI WC), Surya clearly has ambitions to be a part of the second one as well.
Responding to SKY, AB de Villiers have now assured his help to the Indian star. Speaking in a video on his YouTube channel, AB said,
“On the matter of balancing formats, I’m not sure if he has big ambitions in Test cricket, but I don’t think he’ll give up on it. I’ll study his question properly and make sure I give SKY a good answer.”
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As for Suryakumar Yadav, he’s had a tough time trying to convert his T20 success in ODIs. In the shortest format of the game, SKY averages of 36 with 2746 runs while hitting at an impressive rate of 164.20 including four tons and 21 fifties. Coming to ODIs, his average drops to 25.76 in 35 innings, with no century and only four fifties.
There is a stark contrast in the numbers across the two formats but SKY remains motivated to better them.
Furthermore, he is currently 35-years-old and the upcoming two World Cups could be his last chance to lift an ICC trophy after the T20 WC 2024 success. While he will be leading the T20I side next year at the ICC event where India will enter as the defending champions, words of advice from AB de Villiers can also do SKY wonders as he sets his sights on the 50-over mega-event too which will be held in South Africa in 2027.
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