India vs England: 'Sky is a limit,' Rohit heaps praise on Surya ahead of T20 World Cup sem-final
India captain Rohit Sharma has heaped praise on in-form Suryakumar Yadav, saying "sky is the limit for him."
Ahead of India's T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final against England on Thursday (Nov. 10), Rohit said that Surya likes to go out and express himself and the No. 4 batsman never lets the pressure get the better of him.
"I think he's the sort of guy who just doesn't carry any baggage with him -- not his suitcase. He's got a lot of suitcases, honestly speaking. He loves his shopping. But when it comes to carrying the extra pressure, extra baggage, I don't think he has that in him. You can see that when he plays. It's not like he's played a couple of tournaments like that. He's been playing like that for a year now, and you can judge the kind of character he is, and he likes to play like that," Rohit told reporters in a pre-match conference.
India and England are set to face off at Adelaide Oval in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022 and the winner will take on Pakistan in the final at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday (Nov. 13).
"I don't know if you've heard him talk in interviews; he likes to bat in a similar fashion whether we are 10 for 2 or 100 for 2. He likes to go out and express himself, and that's probably the reason he was in the team in the last World Cup," added Rohit in the same conference.
Rohit also revealed Suryakumar's liking towards big grounds. With 225 runs in five games, Surya is the third leading scorer in the T20 World Cup 2022. Overall in 2022, Surya is the only batsman to have scored 1,000 or more runs in the T20Is. The Mumbai cricketer has so far accumulated 1,026 runs in 28 T20Is, including a century and nine fifties.
"Although we didn't have a great World Cup, looking at what he's done in the entire year from that World Cup onwards, we say the sky's the limit for him. But yeah, he's shown great maturity, as well, has taken pressure from a lot of the guys the way he plays, and it rubs off on the other side, as well, when they bat around him.
"He understands he likes playing on the big ground. He hates playing on small grounds. As he told me once, he doesn't like the smaller boundaries, and smaller grounds. He can't see the gaps. I believe that he likes to see big gaps, and that's where his strength is," the Indian skipper said further on Surya, who recently became World No. 1 batsman in T20Is.
Surya and Virat Kohli will be crucial for India going into the semi-final against England in Adelaide. Earlier in the tournament, when India played at Adelaide Oval, Kohli scored a half-century, while Surya contributed with a quick-fire 30.