New Delhi: There is a new No. 1 T20I batter in the world, and it s an Indian wait for it. Yes, you got that right, it is Suryakumar Yadav. The middle order batsman, who has been India s biggest positive and in the form of his life, Suryakumar left behind New Zealand s Devon Conway and pipped Pakistan wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan to claim the top spot in the ICC men s ranking for T20 batsmen. With 863 points, Suryakumar sits pretty atop the table, with Virat Kohli being the only other Indian in the top 10.Suryakumar has been hitting all the right notes over the last few months. He was in rich vein of form in the home season against Australia and South Africa at home and is continuing it in the ongoing T20 World Cup. After a low score against Pakistan 15 , Suryakumar peeled off consecutive half centuries against the Netherlands and South Africa. While in the Netherlands game, Surya s fifty gave India a late flourish, it was against the Proteas that Suryakumar really played one of the best knocks of his life.With India in trouble at 49 5, Suryakumar did not hold himself back and counter attacked against the South African pace quartet of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Parnell and Anrich Nortje en route to a brilliant 60 off 40 balls.
Gautam Gambhir even called it one of the best innings ever played by an Indian in T20I, ranking it higher than Virat Kohli s unbeaten 82 against Pakistan just a few days ago.Suryakumar looked to be celebrating his rise to the top as he raced to 30 off just 15 balls in the India vs Bangladesh T20 World Cup tie, but after smacking four boundaries and scoring at a strike rate of 187, his innings came to an end when he was clean bowled by Shakib Al Hasan failing to connect a cut shot against the run of play.Incidentally, Suryakumar s feat happens to come the same day his India teammate Kohli shattered a huge world record by becoming the all time leading run getter in T20 World Cups, surpassing Sri Lanka great Mahela Jayawardene s tally of 1016 runs from 31 matches. Kohli, who was on 10001 runs prior to the start of the match, created history in the seventh over of the innings and in six matches fewer than Jayawardene.
