'India's version of AB de Villiers': South Africa legend highly impressed with Suryakumar

Suryakumar Yadav’s emergence as a stalwart in Indian batting line-up was clearly on show when Men in Blue squared off against Australia and South Africa in bilateral series. As India look to end wait of winning ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Suryakumar Yadav’s red-hot form will be crucial to India’s success in tournament.

Steyn's high praise for Suryakumar Yadav

Speaking exclusively on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Live’, former South Africa pace bowler Dale Steyn explained how Australian pitches would suit Suryakumar Yadav. Dale Steyn said, “He's kind of player that likes to use pace of ball. He likes to get in behind square. In places like Perth, Melbourne, all of se grounds, re is a little bit of extra pace on it. So, you can use pace, you can hit on fine leg, behind and all along carpet. And he's also really good when standing still and getting off back foot. He has played some amazing backfoot cover drives and some beautiful cover drives off front foot too. So, he's an all-round player, and it's in Australia, where wickets are so good, y are batter friendly. You can also get away when a bowler tries to bowl full, you can place ball left and you can use pace of ball really well, given some room. So, he is a wonderful 360-degree player and reminds me of AB de Villiers. He could be India's version of AB de Villiers and with red-hot form that he's in right w, he's a player to definitely watch out for this World Cup.”
 
Dale Steyn also heaped praise on Shreyas Iyer, who scored a match-winning century in second ODI against South Africa, “re's just little things you can do to improve your game, but way he's batting at moment, I don't think he has to change much. He looks in phemenal form. He's seeing ball like it's a beach ball and for him in India, that's continued a long way,” he said.

Chris Morris on Australian pitches

Former South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris shared his views on Australian pitches, “ wickets in Australia are usually pretty good to bat on. re’s a lot of extra pace and bounce where guys like getting through line, especially in T20s. And quicker ball gets onto bat, quicker it goes. So, looking at conditions in Australia, it would be quite consistent and good eugh to favour fast bowlers. y've been saying that batters have scored a lot of runs in Australia, so I recommend it's a 50-50 at both ends”.

Im: Twitter/ICC