Time for Surya to say namaskar

Itrsquos been six innings since Indiarsquos T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav fired on all cylinders Suryakumar has endured a lean patch after his 75 against Bangladesh last October in Hyderabad where India recorded the thirdhighest T20I total 2976 In his last six T20I innings Suryakumar has scored only 52 runs at 867 His struggles with the bat are reflected in his strike rate over these halfadozen innings mdash 11064 as against his career strike rate of 16770 He will be tested here today during the fourth and penultimate T20I against England with India leading 21Poor averageThe 360degree game that Suryakumar has come to be associated with now with his batting exploits is missing Whatrsquos more concerning is that he has scored only one fifty in nine whiteball matches for Mumbai in DecemberJanuary averaging 2640 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and 950 during the Vijay Hazare TrophyAlso ReadRanji Trophy KL Rahul returns to the pavilion for 26 vs HaryanaRyan ten DoeschateThe 34yearold Mumbaikar has been shuffling between Nos 3 and 4 of late in T20Is depending on the type of openers dismissed to keep a leftright combination going to prevent the bowlers from settling into a rhythm While flexibility in the batting order has been the Indian teamrsquos mantra for a while under different coaches and not necessarily under Gautam Gambhir it seems the blaster has not adjusted to this uncertainty in the batting orderBut like the Indian teamrsquos assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said on Thursday the leftright combination ldquois a big part of Gambhirrsquos strategy in these gamesrdquo Ten Doeschate was not particularly concerned about Suryakumarrsquos form ldquoSurya has set such high standards by himself I wouldnrsquot say that consistency or predictability is a particularly high mark in T20 cricket The job wersquore asking these guys to do is to go out and score really quicklyrdquo he saidldquoThe way the international T20 game has gone we allow for a bit of inconsistency and a bit of a lean patch like hersquos going through at the moment But I always look at how guys are training how they are playing in the nets I thought he played two lovely shots mdash one on the leg side and one on the off side the other night mdash which certainly made me think lsquoah itrsquos backrsquolsquoNot concernedrsquoldquoSo I donrsquot think hersquos far away Generally Gauti Gambhir is very keen to back these guys and give them a long road a long chance to prove themselves Surya has been one of the best batters in the world let alone this Indian team So we are certainly not concerned about him and we feel like hersquos a couple of shots away from being back on track and back in formrdquo Ten Doeschate addedSuryakumar has been at his best at No 4 He has batted in 44 out of his 77 T20I innings at that position scoring his highest T20I score 117 there and has smashed three of his four T20I hundreds at No 4 He also enjoys his highest strike rate 16969 at twodown and averages best 4464 better than his career average at No 4 Suryakumar can hit the right straps in the fourth T20I on Friday and rediscover his form at the venue where in his only previous T20I visit he scored 51 at No 4 against Sri Lanka two years ago