Indian Head Coach Rahul Dravid confirmed that the Men in Blue have finalized their squad and T20 specialist Suryakumar Yadav will be a part of it. Many criticized that Suryakumar cannot play anchoring innings in the ODIs and will also struggle to score more runs. Suryakumar reacted to his critics with a magnificent 50-run knock against Australia in the first ODI, ensuring that his bat did all the talking. The right-handed batter then played an entertaining knock in the penultimate match, smashing 72 off 37 balls.

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri admitted that he will be keeping an eye on Suryakumar, who he believes is the X-factor for India at the World Cup tournament. I’ll be watching him closely, very closely. Because if your top order is firing, you have 6-7-8 players, you will play him or Shreyas Iyer at this moment. But if all the batters are getting runs then that guy becomes the X factor in a big game, he can win you a game, Shastri said.

Because at 6, 7, and 8, the damage he can do with Hardik, they can just take the game away from the opposition in the last 6-7 overs. So that X factor you got to think of, I can imagine that your batting is struggling but it’s not the case, Shastri added.

You know you expect one hundred from the top-order batters. Suryakumar will always be in my 12. You have five proper batters, and all five are similar, instead of that have one X-factor like Surya, Shastri concluded.