When was the last time one has seen a cricket break-out with an innocent smile after reaching a milestone- say after reaching a century in the world of cricket? Well, conventionally when the cricketers around the world-before the advent of Suryakumar or rather an impacted entry of Suryakumar – would raise their bat towards heaven with a stoic look or a look of surrender!
Well, Suryakumar is changing the paradigms of celebrations on achieving a target and it was on full flow when he reached the century yesterday. He was smiling or rather grinning from ears to ears, telling the authorities with a smirk or rather underlining the delay that they made in his case of drafting him into the national team?
He grins with a nod or oscillation of his head with witty affirmation that “I am here, and I am here to annihilate all the established cannons of shot making and create Suryakumar book of cricketing shots.” The manner in which he is unconsciously developing the style of nodding his neck reminds one of the heydays of Dev Anand, when nodding of the head became his signature statement and it is a welcome change from the grim and supposed focused look that the players of cricket off-late have started wearing on their shoulders. Suryakumar is enjoying every moment of the game and it is finding expression through his mannerisms well.
Captains who have to set the field against his shot making would require 18 fielders to cover the ground when SKY is batting and even then, he would find innovative ways to despatch the ball outside the boundary. Its most visible manifestation was evident yesterday in the T20 series between India and Sri Lanka at Rajkot when Madhushanka, the fast bowler of Sri Lanka followed him to the off side with a body targeted beamer and Surya while tripping over to the ground, despatched the ball behind the stumps for a revengeful six. Madhushanka’s expression of disbelief after the shot was summation of the execution that Surya executed with clinical precision.
Wasim Akram in his recently released autobiography- SULTAN has written that nobody chewed gum like how Vivian Richards did, and nobody occupied the crease like Viv Richards did! Well, same dictum may be applied in case of Suryakumar as well! The manner in which he has started occupying the crease, no other players has done it in the recent memory and the masticated manner in which he chews the gum, Suryakumar seems to have unconsciously picked up the mannerisms of Viv Richards.
With a strike rate of 150plus, Suryakumar could turn out to be the nemesis of the cricket captains of the teams around the world as he would be a force to reckon with, a force which has been set to motion and the brake pedals have been removed and it is a journey full of fun and enjoyment. Day is not far-off, in the present era of monetisation of each and every aspect of life in the public gaze and through the filter of social media where to have a vantage view of Suryakumar batting spectators may like to bid for a higher price in the stadium? The game indeed is on.
