IPL 2023: Suryakumar Yadav Is Going To Realise He Can't Entertain The Crowd In Every Single Innings, Says AB De Villiers

He had begun 2023 with a dazzling century against Sri Lanka in the second T20I at Rajkot, but since then his form has seen a sudden dip, which was evident from him bagging a hat-trick of ducks in ODIs against Australia.

In Mumbai Indians' first game of IPL 2023, Suryakumar scored 15 off 16 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Asked about how Suryakumar can get out of his sudden lean run, South Africa batting legend AB de Villiers advised the right-handed batter to get back towards what worked for him in the past when he was smashing scintillating knocks.

"He (Yadav) has got to stick to what's been working for him over the years. Yes, maybe, he can try and remember 'what are my basics' or 'what did I do very well when I was just consistently scoring runs'. He took his game to a completely different level and honestly, it's not a bad thing to come down a level and spend a bit of time there before you pop out again."

"You can't always score a hundred off 40 balls; it's something which won't happen everyday. That's something I had to learn the hard way as well, with the Chinnaswamy crowd expecting me to score a hundred every game."

"Sometimes I had to tell myself, 'you know what AB let's be honest here, you are not reading the ball very. Just make sure you go run-a-ball and give Virat the strike or just get someone else on'. And then slowly but surely I get one good shot and then I am back in the game."

"So he's going to realise he can't entertain the crowd in every single innings. There will always be a sign when you get into good form, there will be a bad delivery or you'll hit a good straight drive," said de Villiers during a virtual media roundtable.

De Villiers, currently seen as an IPL Expert for JioCinema, revealed that he's been through the anxiety of encountering bad form whenever he had a good day with the bat and further asked Suryakumar to respect the situation he's in right now.

"I went through those patches a lot of times in my career. It's something that I can write a book about, to be honest. To be out of form is something I would always fear so much and when I was in good nick, I always thought that my next bad knock would be just around the corner."

"I very clearly remember when I would have a couple of bad knocks in the IPL, I would get anxious and feel I was very close to getting into bad form and need to get out of it. He is probably in that phase now where he needs to do something. But the secret of it all is to not panic and not change your game plan."

"You can then reset and move forward to manage the gears. I call them gears, he'll just have to manage them. Between first and fifth gear, where am I at the moment. He's probably in second gear at the moment, he'll have to respect that and find a way to get to third gear and push on from there."

De Villiers, a batting stalwart at the RCB who helped turn many games in favour of the side with his 360-degree strokeplay, believes bowlers who know how to handle pressure better can help them set apart from others despite being taken to the cleaners.

"All the world-class bowlers find a way to dominate batters when it matters most - variations, calm thinking, composed under pressure. I always believed the best bowlers competed, they looked you in the eye and never started to hide away when they're under pressure."

"The bowlers I got on top off, I could see it in their eyes that they were looking for a place to hide. That was the trigger for me that it was time to take them out. In my opinion, the best bowlers keep coming back even after getting hit." 

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