“Probably The Best T20 Batter”: South Africa Pacer On Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav’s incredibly strong and powerful batting has made him one of the most feared T20 batters at the moment and South African all-rounder Wayne Parnell says the bowlers will have to stay strong and focussed while tackling him. Surya slammed a 33-ball 50 in India’s eight-wicket win over South Africa on a tricky track in the series-opener.

“Personally from what I’ve watched in the last couple of months, I think he’s probably the best T20 batters at the moment. He scores 360-degree which is very difficult for bowlers to defend,” he said on the eve of the second and penultimate T20I of the series.

“It’s about being strong and focussed on each ball. He’s allowed to play good shots, but the other day he was lucky as well. He’s certainly a guy whom I enjoyed watching the last couple of months. He’s certainly playing good cricket,” Parnell said.

Parnell insisted that their flop show in the first T20I was an aberration and there’s no need to panic before the T20 World Cup in Australia.

“It’s just one of those things. It wasn’t a good T20 wicket and they bowled really well, but our batters have been world class in the last couple of years so there’s nothing to panic about,” he said.

On their meek show in the powerplay when they were stuttering 9 for five, Parnell said, “It’s a bit of a Catch-22 situation really. Certainly experience tells you that new ball does swing so you have to have a look at the first one-two overs.” “We have to credit the Indian seamers who bowled really well. We will have to define ways to counter that in the second game.” Kagiso Rabada and Parnell hit the right lengths but the likes of Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi struggled badly in the first match as the visitors looked one seamer short.

“Competition is good for the spots. Every single fast bowlers is different and has different skill sets. It’s a positive sign for us. It also means that when we are presented with any particular condition, we can play a certain set of fast bowlers so I think personally having the variety that we have is really exciting,” he said.

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On World Cup preparation, he said: “It’s been very good over the last few months. We were here in June, then went on a UK tour, coming back here again before going to Australia. Everyone is in really good spirits and looking forward to next couple of T20Is and the ODIs as well.”

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