IPL 2023, RCB vs MI: Harshal Patel reveals plans to counter Suryakumar; 'ABD was better'

Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: Star RCB pacer Harshal Patel shed light on his plans to tackle a top-notch batsman like Suryakumar Yadav ahead of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Indian Premier League 2023 campaign against Mumbai Indians. The 32-year-old recently spoke to ESPNcricinfo and made notable revelations about himself. Most notably, Patel came up with an interesting answer on being questioned about his plans to tackle Suryakumar, while also referring to his former RCB teammate AB de Villiers.

Patel admitted having faced the problem of bowling against such stroke players and went on to mention that de Villiers is a better batsman than Suryakumar. “Look, man, someone of his calibre, who's in the kind of form that he is in, all you can bank on is your planning and execution. What he does after that is up to him. This is not the first time I have encountered this problem. AB [de Villiers] was one step better than Surya, in the sense that he would make you bowl where he wanted. He was that good”.

"Surya will sweep you from almost outside the pitch on off stump"

“Surya will sweep you from almost outside the pitch on off stump. Remember the Zimbabwe game [in the 2022 T20 World Cup]? He was sweeping bowlers to fine leg from like three feet outside the off stump. Another ability he has is to take the ball on his body all the time,” the Indian pacer added.

While Harshal couldn’t feature in the playing XI at the T20 World Cup 2022, Suryakumar Yadav was the third over and India’s second highest run scorer in the tournament. He hit 239 runs in six games at an average of 59.75 but India exited the marquee tournament after losing the semi-final by 10 wickets to England.

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SuryaKumar Yadav won the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2022 award

However, Suryakumar finished 2022 with a total of 1164 runs at an average of 46.56 and a strike rate of 187.43. He hit a whopping 68 sixes in the format in 2022 and also bagged the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2022. Meanwhile, Harshal further explained Suryakumar Yadav’s playing style and said, “It's one thing to take the ball on your body and play in front of square, because you still have a lot of time to adjust if the ball comes out slower or faster”. 

“But if you are trying to play behind square and take the ball on your body - if it comes out a little slower or a little faster, it's going to hit you. And you have to be okay with that. I don't think many players are. That's why you don't see a lot of players playing the shots he plays,” he added.