Indian Cricket Team Star Batter's World Cup Spot May Be In Danger Once Hardik Pandya Returns: Report

Suryakumar Yadav is an antithesis to what proverbial Mumbai school of batsmanship is all about -- dollops of doggedness in a fine mixture of style and class. Style and class has never been a problem with 'SKY'. He has given ample display of that in T20 cricket, a format he has bossed with remarkable ease. However some of his low scores in ODIs did raise questions if he is unable to blend a bit of serenity in his all or nothing approach, which is perfectly in sync with T20s but not the 50-over format.

But on Sunday, at the Ekana Stadium in arguably the toughest batting conditions of the current World Cup, Surya channelised his inner Mumbaikar to play an innings which would be rated very highly in terms of responsibility and substance quotient.

The 49 off 47 balls on a track, where it was extremely difficult to just plonk front-foot and hit through the line, showed why the team management had way more faith in his abilities compared to a few other players, who missed the World Cup bus.

And not only did Surya do a world of good for himself but also put Shreyas Iyer under considerable amount of pressure going into the matches going forward.

Hardik Pandya, who is nursing a left ankle grade 1 sprain (damage to fibers of ligament), is expected to come back towards the business end of the league stage and a debate could ensue who should stay in playing XI: Iyer who is enduring a low string of scores or Surya who has proved what he could do in critical situations.

"We all know what Surya can do in T20Is. What was impressive was how he read the situation and was ready to play the second fiddle till Rohit was at the crease. It was a top class innings keeping conditions in mind and he only played his customary pick-up shot behind