You can’t look much into it: Rohit on Surya’s scores

Considered one of the best players in the T20 format, Suryakumar Yadav registered three successive golden ducks against Australia, but captain Rohit Sharma hinted that the Indian team management is not looking too much into his failures in the ODI series.
The 32-year-old Suryakumar was trapped by Australian left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc in the first two ODIs. The team management backed him and included him in the playing XI for the series-decider here on Wednesday, but he was again dismissed first ball, this time by left-arm spinner Ashton Agar.
“He (Suryakumar) played only three balls in the series. I don’t know how much you can look into it. He got three good balls,” Rohit said after India lost the third and final ODI by 21 runs to concede the series 1-2 to Australia.
“(On Wednesday) I didn’t think it was that great a ball. He just chose the wrong shot. He should have, maybe, come forward. He knows best.”
Suryakumar has featured in 23 ODIs after his debut in July 2021, scoring 433 runs at a below-par average of 24.05.
Rohit said Suryakumar was initially slotted to bat at number 5 but the team management held him back to face the Australian attack in the last 15-20 overs. Suryakumar actually came out at number 7.
“He plays spin really well which is why we wanted to hold him back and give him the last 15-20 overs where he could play his game. But it’s really unfortunate he could only play three balls in the series. That can happen to anyone. The potential, the quality, is always there. He is just going through that (lean) phase right now.
“Once we played the first 10 overs, the ball did not swing at all. There was no question of swing where Surya could be troubled or anything like that. It was a tactical move. We wanted to use his potential at the back end along with Hardik. These two players would have been ideal for us but unfortunately they got out.”