T20 World Cup: Captain Surya wants his men to be adaptable in Super Eight

The Super Eight stage of T20 World Cup, which got underway in Colombo on Saturday, has come in for some serious flak in cricket community for it’s pre-seedings. This will cause two of the group toppers of Group I comprising of India, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the West Indies to be eliminated before the semi-finals – hence making the margin of error minimal in the three matches for each.

While Suryakumar Yadav, the Indian skipper, was his usual jovial self ahead of their Super 8 opener against South Africa in Ahmedabad in a match-up of the 2024 final on Sunday – he harped on the need of ‘respecting’ the game and play the situation. While the defending champions are one of the three teams to have finished with an all-win record in the league stage (SA and West Indies are others), the fluency which marked their irresistible form in this format last year had been often missing.

 A key factor behind that was their new blade runner Abhishek Sharma failing to explode with three ducks on the trot, but the opener had his captain batting for him.  ‘’I worry for the people who are worried about Abhishek’s form, I worry about them. Why are they so worried about Abhishek’s form.

‘’It happens, it’s a team sport, it keeps going on. Now the team has a requirement that the boy (Abhishek) should play with his identity. If it happens then it’s fine but if it doesn’t, then we are there to cover. Last year he covered for us, now we will cover for him,’’ said a pragmatic Surya without trying to unduly brush the issue under the carpet.

The ‘real’ tournament, in Surya’s words, begins now and he feels adaptability is the key to make their way through the next round. ‘’See, we don’t have to be a team that keeps hitting and hitting. Sometimes, we can get into a situation where we lose two-three wickets quickly so we have to be a little smart team also to bat well between 7 to 15 overs.

‘’Then we have enough firepower that once the base is strong, we can score around 60, 70 runs in last five overs. Whenever we get a good start – then we can bat with those same template. But sometimes such tricky situations come in T20 where you’re two down or three down. In the middle overs, you have to respect the game and keep your main game to the side. The team has to play according to the requirements that the team has.’’

Speaking ahead of Indian captain’s press conference, the astute South African coach Shukari Conrad tried to deflect the pressure on the hosts by saying they have skyhigh expectations from the fans to deal with. Surya was measured in his response: ‘’It’s very difficult to say that there is no pressure or it’s easy to handle. When you’re playing such a big event at your home soil, you definitely feel pressure. It’s not that you can run away from it because you meet so many people in the hotel when you are travelling - the same goal to win the World Cup, we have to do well.

‘’Yes, of course, there is pressure. But at the same time, every individual has a different plan to deal with it. However, we are trying our best to keep it simple. It's easy to say that we have to keep it simple. But we're trying our best to be in present, try to keep our feet where we are.

There is no doubt that at 35 years, the Indian captain looks like playing his last T20 World Cup. It’s a manner of speaking, but it could be a perfect parting gift to Surya if the Men in Blue can buck the trend and become the first team to win back-to-back trophies.

Catch the match

Super Eight match

India vs South Africa

Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

Start: 7 pm IST