'He would just look in mirror and remind himself...' - Suryakumar Yadav's childhood friend decodes making of a star

The star Indian batting sensation and World number one T20I batter, Suryakumar Yadav has currently become a word in everyone’s mouth in the entire cricketing fraternity. The guy who made his first international appearance at the age of 30 amazed and stunned everyone by grabbing the top spot in the World T20I batter’s ranking at the age of 32, the time when most cricketers think to hang their boots from the great game of cricket.

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The journey to reach current fame was not that much easy for the Mumbai-born batting prodigy. It is being said because it took a long time of almost 11 odd years for an international debut from starting the domestic career at the age of 20 for Mumbai.

Recently, SKY’s state mate and his childhood friend Sufiyan Shaikh has revealed the encampments that happened to occur in the way of explosive batter from a Mumbai batter to become the third-highest run scorer in the recently concluded 20-20 World Cup 2022.

he is determined that he would make the bowlers bowl onto his body – Sufiyan Shaikh on Suryakumar Yadav

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"People love width so that they can change their arms. Surya is the opposite. He operates with the barest minimum space. So those incredible shots behind the stumps that he pulls off, he is determined that he would make the bowlers bowl onto his body." Said Sufiyan while talking about the technique of Suryakumar Yadav.

"Obviously, on hard pitches with a lot of bounce, he would wear thigh pads but in Ahmedabad, on his T20I debut against England, he didn't wear a thigh pad. Lot of times on Indian pitches he does that to reduce weight and that helps him run swiftly during two's and three's," he added later.

Later on, while summing up his remarks, the wicketkeeper-batter also talked about Surya’s dedication and perseverance in his goal of playing for the national team of India. Shaikh told about the way SKY treated his room during the days when they were playing together for Mumbai.

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"On the mirror in his room, on the closet, on the bedside, everywhere there were India stickers pasted. He would just look and remind himself what his goal is," the friend said. He believes that it was the right time that Surya got an opportunity to play for India,” concluded Sufiyan Shaikh.