New Delhi, April 19 (IANS): Ex-Australia cricketer Tom Moody shared his thoughts on Suryakumar Yadav's resurgence leading up to the T20 World Cup and stressed the significance of the 33-year-old gradually regaining full fitness and emphasised the necessity for him to play the entire 40 overs.
In Thursday's match against Punjab Kings (PBKS), Suryakumar brought out his trademark shots to make a fine 78 and power MI to a daunting 192/7 total. This was his second fifty-plus score this season in four games he played.
Suryakumar missed the first three games for MI due to a lengthy layoff caused by an ankle injury and sports hernia surgery. Upon his return against Delhi Capitals, he faced a duck. However, in the subsequent match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, he showcased top form, hammering a 19-ball 52, the joint second-fastest fifty for MI.
Speaking on Suryakumar coming back to form with the T20 World Cup in mind, Moody praised the MI batter's 78-run knock against PBKS and said, "Yeah it's important that he slowly works back into full fitness, he needs to be playing for the whole 40 overs and that would be great. Not that he bowls or anything but for his own peace of mind and fitness for that the preparation for what is beyond the IPL.
"It was a great innings today and his chat in the middle of the innings talking about how unsure he was about the surface and how as a team they would want to make sure that all their top order batters are still there till the 17th over so, clearly losing Rohit Sharma at that point he had to take up the responsibility. So that took it a little down from his normal strike rate which is 160-170. But still at 150, who wouldn't take 150?" Moody said on Star Sports Cricket Live.
Moody further praised MI's pace bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah's performance. The ace fast bowler had an impressive outing against PBKS as he took out Rilee Rossouw and Sam Curran in his first over, before taking out Shashank Singh to claim the figures of 3-21 in his allotted four overs.
"He's at the peak of his powers at the moment. The ball that he bowled to Rilee Rossouw is as good a ball as any, a right-arm over ball, as he bowls to a left-hander. I don't care whether you're Rilee Rossouw or Brian Lara, you're not laying back on that. That was an absolute peach of a delivery.
"Again, Mumbai leading on him so much to turn their fortunes around. He bowled two overs early on and had the Punjab Kings on their back. But interestingly enough, he didn't bowl another over until the 13th over. And that's my point of where I think the Mumbai Indians let the Punjab Kings back into this contest," he said.