In India’s meaningless group encounter against Oman, the great Sunil Gavaskar supported captain Suryakumar Yadav’s choice to promote his teammates rather than bat himself.
Suryakumar shuffled the batting order to allow the lower-order more playing time, even moving himself down to No. 11, because India had already guaranteed a spot in the Super Four with victories over Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
India defeated Oman by 21 runs after scoring 188 for eight.
“If he had batted for even one over, he could have hit a few fours and sixes and that would have been good for him. But the way he batted against Pakistan, may be does not need batting practice,” Gavaskar said in a conversation with former India pacer Irfan Pathan on Sony Sports.
“He may have thought that Kuldeep Yadav’s batting could come in handy if India lose quick wickets in one of the matches. Perhaps that’s why he may have sent Kuldeep in to bat.” Gavaskar praised Suryakumar for his out-of-the-box thinking.
“He is a very unorthodox thinker. We saw in Sri Lanka that he himself bowled and also gave Rinku Singh the ball. He turned the game, which seemed to have slipped away, on its head and won India the match.
“He is an innovative thinker. May be that’s why he did not bat and sent in Kuldeep and Arshdeep Singh,” the 76-year-old added.
