Rohit Sharma's golden reply to Harsha Bhogle's 'How do you protect Suryakumar's form' question is an absolute winner
During the post-match presentation ceremony, when Harsha Bhogle asked the India captain, "How do you keep Surya's form together? The form he is in... just protect it. How do you hold it together?" Rohit Sharma came up with a gem of a reply.
Suryakumar Yadav cannot seem to do anything wrong. The India middle-order batter is enjoying the form of his life as he played another knock of substance during the 2nd T20I against South Africa in Guwahati on Sunday. Suryakumar played a blistering knock of 61 of just 22 balls, during which he smacked five fours and five sixes. After openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were dismissed, the reason why India were able to keep their scoring rate intact was the intent shown by Suryakumar and Virat Kohli. Kohli and Surya forged a partnership of 102 runs, enough to knock the stuffing out of the South African bowlers as India posted a humongous total of 237/3.
Suryakumar's form is one of the big positives for India ahead of the T20 World Cup, where they open their campaign against rivals Pakistan on October 23. As Suryakumar's stock continues to rise, Rohit is aware just how crucial the form of India's No. 4 batter is going to be. Hence, during the post-match presentation ceremony, when Harsha Bhogle asked the India captain, "How do you keep Surya's form together? The form he is in... just protect it. How do you hold it together?" Rohit came up with a gem of a reply.
"Just thinking not to play him anymore. Just play him on 23rd. But no (seriously), the kind of form he is in... he is somebody who wants to play the game, who wants to keep going out there and keep doing well. That is what keeps him happy and we want to keep him happy," he said after India defeated South Africa by 16 runs to take the series with an unassailable 2-1 lead.
Suryakumar, who scored back-to-back fifties, weighed in on his blazing half-century and the match overall, explaining what he had in mind once he walked out to bat at the dismissal of KL Rahul, who had scored 57 off 28 balls to set up the tempo and was declared the Player of the Match.
"We were batting first, so it was very clear that I had to keep the tempo that was set by Rahul and Rohit and I just went and enjoyed myself. He (Miller) batted beautifully and I loved it. You just have to be planning really well when you are having the practice sessions (about second-guessing the bowlers). When you are batting first, you can't set a target and you just got to bat as deep as possible and get as many runs as possible," he said after the match.
