'Why my name is not there?': Suryakumar Yadav opens up on Australia snub, Rohit's 'boost'

Despite putting up brilliant performances year-after-year and yet not being ignored by selectors for the national team, Mumbai stalwart Suryakumar Yadav has opened up on his recent snub for the Australia tour which left him completely 'disappointed'. The Mumbai batsman, who had a stellar season of T20 cricket in the IPL, revealed that he was aware of the squads being announced on that day and tried to keep himself busy. He also stated that it was skipper Rohit Sharma, who boosted his confidence after the snub, by telling him to continue performing and believing in himself. With 480 runs in the IPL 2020, Suryakumar Yadav became the only uncapped Indian player to score more than 2000 runs in the IPL.

Recalling the moment when the squads were announced, Yadav told PTI, "That time in the gym Rohit was sitting besides me and he just looked at me, and I said, 'obviously, I am a bit disappointed', Because he could see that I was expecting some good news. Later on he was like 'I just believed you have been doing a great job for the team right now, and instead of thinking about that (non-selection), you just do the same things what you have been since day one in this IPL."

Adding that "those words" from Rohit helped him come out of the disappointment, Yadav said, "I really felt good because I knew how I was feeling at that time and even he could see it in my eyes clearly. I think to come out of that was a big boost for me."

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'Why my name is not there?'

The 30-year-old Mumbai batsman also revealed that he was disturbed by the snub and tried to concentrate on different things. He also added that when the selection was announced he thought about why his name was not on the list but was soon undeterred by the snub and instead determined to score more. 

"I sat in a room and started thinking, why my name is not there, but after looking at the squad there were lot of players who got lot of runs as well and even they have been playing consistently, doing well for India, doing well in IPL. Then I thought instead of thinking about that, I'll just try and keep scoring runs, do my job, what's in my hand, what's in my control, and then wait for the opportunity, whenever it comes, grab with both hands," he said.

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Shedding light on his preparations for the IPL, Yadav said that he had been trying to score across the part and did not want to be a 'single-dimensional player'. "Before I used to love playing on leg-side, but then, later on, I thought, if you have to play well and score runs at this level with so much of competition you got to, practise hard and take the other side as well. Then I started practising, even more, playing off-side strokes, because I used to love playing Ranji Trophy and in four-day cricket, you can't actually survive playing on one side, then I started enjoying more batting on offside as well, built a few strokes," he said. The number three batsman was instrumental in Mumbai's 2020 campaign as it saw the champions defend the title and clinch the title for the fifth time in the tournament's history. 

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