The missing puzzle of the Mumbai Indians‘ batting order, India’s white-ball specialist Suryakumar Yadav is back and he is buzzing to play his first match of the 2024 season. MI, who are playing their first season under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya, were desperate to have him back after losing 3 out of their first 3 matches. Upon his return, Surya spoke to Anjum Chopra, and therein, he expressed his excitement to stage his return. Their tie against the Delhi Capitals will be an important one and it could be a match through which MI can find some positive momentum and hopefully claim their first victory of the season.
Suryakumar Yadav will be playing his first competitive match against Delhi Capitals for the first time since December 2023. During India’s all-format tour of South Africa last in December 2023, Surya was captaining the team in the 3-match T20I series. After the 1st T20 got washed out, Surya had scored 56 runs in the 2nd T20I at Gqeberha which the Indians had eventually lost by 5 wickets. Then in the 3rd T20 at Johannesburg, the right-hand batter scored his 4th century in the shortest format with India claiming the victory by 106 runs.
Why was Surya out for 2-3 months?
However, while fielding in the 2nd innings, Suryakumar Yadav sustained an ankle injury and was eventually ruled out of the 3-match ODI series. In his absence, KL Rahul captained the team and India won the series by 2-1. While on his way to recovery from the ankle injury, Surya caught a sports hernia illness that further hindered his progress and was eventually ruled out for 2-3 months. And it was only last week that officials of NCA gave him the green light to join MI and play IPL 2024.
Suryakumar Yadav says he was mentally in the MI camp
Anjum Chopra asked Suryakumar Yadav to describe his feelings upon returning to the cricket field and joining the MI camp. The 33-year-old stated that he might have been recovering from his illness at the NCA but mentally he was always with his IPL teammates. “Absolutely. I mean I missed it quite a lot. For the last 2-3 weeks I was mentally here but physically somewhere else but coming here, wearing this jersey and getting back to the stadium, it feels really good.” – Surya told Anjum Chopra via IPLT20.com
Suryakumar Yadav then spoke about his return to the Wankhede stadium and how excited he was for his first net session. SKY narrated that on the night that he joined the team in Mumbai, he was extremely eager to get up the next morning and head over to the nets. As soon as he returned, Surya claimed that it felt as if he never left.
“Yes. I remember I came here 1-2 days ago in the night time and the next day I was extremely eager wake up in the morning and going to Wankhede for practice and when I came back here for the first net session, it didn’t feel as if I was away from cricket for so long.” – Surya concluded,
