Suryakumar Yadav reveals the origin of 'SKY' and who coined the nickname

Suryakumar Yadav is currently in England gearing up for the World Test Championship final against Australia. The Mumbai Indians batsman is one of the standby players for this one-off Test match. He had a wonderful Indian Premier League and would be willing to chip into the valuable contributions if he gets the golden chance.

Suryakumar Yadav revealed the actual story behind his nickname

Ahead of the match, team India warmed up in a bid to get accustomed to the English condition. During the practice in an interview with BCCI's media team, the batsman spilled the beans on how he got the nickname 'SKY'. The 32-year-old revealed former Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir coined the term as he thought his name was too big to pronounce. “It (the name) came in 2014/15 when I was playing for KKR. That time Gauti bhai (Gautam Gambhir) gave this name because Suryakumar Yadav, he said was too long for everyone to call so SKY came from there."

On beings asked about his favorite teammate, the cricketer picked up Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel, and Ravichandran Ashwin. “If you look around, everyone is my best mate. But I love spending time with Ishan, Siraj, Axar Patel, and Ravichandran Ashwin. Good to be around them apart from you (BCCI's media team)."

Surykumar is renowned for his innovative shot selection as he could use all the gaps on the pitch if he is on strike. When asked about his 'Supla Shot', he replied, “I think this term has come from tennis cricket. I have seen a lot of them, when I play, when I go back home and I shot means the ball which you hit right behind the wicketkeeper when it’s shot coming right at your head. It’s something like going behind so what I love."

WTC Final Squad

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, KS Bharat, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadakt, Umesh Yadav.

Reserves: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav