“He showed class character” - Suryakumar Yadav reserves special praise for young bowler after T20I series win over Australia

Team India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav has praised young leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi for his fantastic comeback in the T20I series against Australia after a poor start. Suryakumar stated that Bishnoi showed “class character” after being expensive in the opening T20I of the series.

The Men in Blue beat Australia by six runs in the fifth and final T20I at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday. Batting first, India put up 160/8 and then restricted the opponents to 154/8. Bishnoi starred with 2/29, claiming the wickets of Travis Head (28) and Aaron Hardie (6).

In a video posted on bcci.tv, Suryakumar hailed the young leggie while reflecting on the series win.

“The way he [Ravi Bishnoi] came back after the first game and to finish with the Man of the Series award, he showed class character,” the Indian skipper commented.

Bishnoi was the Player of the Series for claiming nine wickets at an average of 18.22. The 23-year-old went for 54 runs in the Visakhapatnam T20I, but made a strong comeback, claiming eight wickets in the next four matches while also being economical.

While Bishnoi was the Player of the Series, all-rounder Axar Patel won his second Player of the Match award in a row for scoring 31 from 21 balls and registering figures of 1/14 in his four overs.

“Axar won Man of the Match in back-to-back games, which is a big thing. I am really happy [for him],” Suryakumar stated.

Axar had claimed 3/16 in the fourth T20I in Raipur as the Men in Blue won the contest by 20 runs.

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“Have seen him bowl in such situations in franchise cricket” - Suryakumar on Arshdeep bowling 20th over

Apart from the spinners, pacers Arshdeep Singh (2/40) and Mukesh Kumar (3/32) also made key contributions. The former bowled an excellent last over. Australia needed 10 runs to win, but the left-armer gave away only three.

“Paaji executed exactly what I told him. I have seen him bowl in such situations in franchise cricket. That’s why I held him back for the last over. Earlier, I told the bowlers that if we can keep 10-12 runs for the last over, the pressure will be on the other side. He kept things tight,” the Indian skipper said in praise of Arshdeep.

Speaking about the impressive T20I series win, Suryakumar stated that India will look to improve on areas where they were lacking.

Whenever you win the series, you tend to forget a lot of things, but my learnings are different. When we win the series, we want to see what we were lacking, what we can do better and move forward,” he commented.

India will next visit South Africa for an all-format tour from December 10 to January 7.