&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'When you’re not batting at your best...': Ricky Ponting reflects on Suryakumar Yadav’s T20 World Cup captaincy")
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting praised the leadership of India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav during his first ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as skipper and said that although Suryakumar did not perform very well with the bat, but he still did an excellent job leading the team. During the tournament, the 35-year-old scored 242 runs in nine innings and his best performance was an important unbeaten innings of 84 runs from 49 balls against the United States, which helped save the match for India.
Speaking on The ICC Review, Ponting explained that leadership is not only about what happens on the field. He added that a captain’s work off the field, including communication and supporting teammates is equally important.
Ponting added that it can be very difficult to captain a team when a player is not in top batting form. On the other hand, when a captain is scoring runs consistently, leading the team becomes much easier.
“It’s about a lot more about what they do off the field, the things that people don’t see and how they interact with their players,” Ponting said, on The ICC Review.
“He didn’t have a great time himself as a player, but still he’s standing at the end holding up a World Cup trophy. I know as a former captain, when you’re not batting at your absolute best, captaincy can become really difficult. And when you are batting well, captaincy can become really easy.”
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He also said that the true example of Suryakumar’s leadership would be seen in how he supported players like Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson in recent weeks. According to Ponting, leadership is not only about guiding the team’s main players but also about helping younger or struggling players regain confidence and improve their form.
“It would have been really interesting to see how Surya has interacted with Abhishek and Sanju Samson over the last few weeks. That’s where the real stories will come out on true leadership.”
“You don’t have to worry about the staples, it’s more the guys on the fringe and the younger guys going up and down with their emotions and battling with their form, the ones you have to spend the most time with,” said Ponting.
