Suryakumar Yadav has received high praise from the great Ricky Ponting, who compared the batter with AB de Villiers, saying the Indian possesses a 360 degree game like the South African genius.
Ponting suggested that Yadav should bat at number four in the Indian line-up. "Surya (Yadav) scores 360 degrees around the ground, a bit like an AB de Villiers did when he was in his actual prime.
The lap shots, the late cuts, you know, the ramps over the keeper's head. He can hit down the ground," Ponting said on the latest episode of The ICC Review. "He hits really well over the leg side, flicks to deep backward square particularly well, and he's a good player of fast bowling and is a good player of spin bowling." Yadav, 31, has scored 672 runs at an average of 37.33 and a strike rate of 175.45 in 23 T20 matches and now sits at No.2 in the ICC T20 Batter Rankings, behind Pakistan skipper Babar Azam. "He's a very, very exciting player and I'm sure someone that's going to find himself in their team, not just their squad," Ponting, who has seen Yadav up close in his early years at Mumbai Indians, said. "I think you'd find him in their team for the T20 World Cup.
And if he's in that team, then I think all the fans in Australia are going to see a very, very good player. "He's quite a confident person.