"He was always behind me, 'why are you not playing for India?'" - When Suryakumar Yadav thanked a spin legend for tweeting in his support

Team India's T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav has a terrific record in the format. In 78 matches, the right-handed batter has struck 2,570 runs at an average of 40.79 and a strike rate of 167.86, with four hundreds and 21 fifties. Having made his international debut in July 2021, he's No. 14 on the list of batters with most runs in T20Is.

There was a time, though, when Suryakumar couldn't break into the Indian T20I side despite some terrific performances in domestic cricket. In 2019, he came up with some brilliant batting efforts in multiple domestic competitions, but the India cap didn't come his way.

Reflecting on the wonderful performances, former India off-spinner and his former Mumbai Indians teammate Harbhajan Singh had tweeted in Suryakumar's support. Sharing a post on social media, Harbhajan wrote:

"Don’t know why he doesn’t get picked for india after scoring runs heavily in domestic cricket @surya_14kumar keep working hard.. your time will come."

Responding to Harbhajan's post, Suryakumar thanked him and described the former India bowler as someone who always pushed him to work harder and was constructive in his criticism. The T20 batting star told ESPNcricinfo:

"I have been sharing the dressing room with him since 2011 (at Mumbai Indians, his first IPL franchise). We had a good friendship on and off the field. When I left Mumbai Indians and went to Kolkata Knight Riders (in the 2014 auction), he was always behind me, 'why are you not playing for India? You are not doing justice to your talent. I think it's high time you become a little more consistent.'

"There was a lot of what you can call constructive criticism. I really enjoyed it. I could feel he wants me to go ahead and play for the country, which was the best thing. Knowing he tweeted, I was really happy. I called him and told him, 'thank you so much Bhajju pa for tweeting for me. It means a lot that you tweeted'. He keeps motivating me, keeps pushing me, because he feels I'm not doing justice to my talent. And that's good, there have to be a few people who keep doing this for you," the Mumbai Indians batter went on to add.

Suryakumar was finally rewarded for his brilliant performances in domestic cricket and the IPL when he was handed his T20I debut against England in July 2021. The right-handed hammered a fifty in his very first knock for India and hasn't looked back since then.

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Suryakumar was one of the heroes of India's 2024 T20 World Cup campaign

Suryakumar was a key member of Team India's 2024 T20 World Cup triumph. In eight innings, he scored 199 runs at an average of 28.42 and a strike rate of 135.37, with two fifties.

The 34-year-old scored 50* off 49 against USA and 53 off 28 against Afghanistan in the group stage. He also contributed 47 off 36 in the semi-final against England and took a sensational catch on the boundary to dismiss David Miller in the final against South Africa.