‘Don’t want to put too much pressure on him’ - MI head coach Mark Boucher opens up Suryakumar Yadav’s form

After failing to make a mark in the recently concluded ODI series against Australia, Suryakumar Yadav is yet to show his class with the bat in the ongoing IPL 2023. In two matches so far, the flamboyant batter has scored only 16 runs and that’s a massive reason to worry about, especially when his experience matters a lot in the middle order of Mumbai Indians.

However, Mumbai's head coach Mark Boucher is optimistic that the 32-year-old will find his form in the upcoming games. He mentioned that the management does not want to put too much pressure on the cricketer and will back him by giving him new challenges to overcome.

“Surya is an extremely talented cricketer, one of the world's best T20 players, if not the best. He has not had the weight of runs of late but he is a fantastic player. Hope he can come good for us in the near future. I don't want to put too much pressure on him.

"We all know what he can do. That’s just the game of cricket. Sometimes you go through little patches where you struggle for form. He added, “We’ll back him and try set him some new challenges to get his mind off his own game if that’s what will help him to try get some good form going into the middle and end stages of the tournament,” Boucher was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.

157 was not good enough on that wicket: Boucher

Batting first against Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians struggled a lot to get going in match no. 12. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan started well but failed to capitalise on that. The middle order once looked pale as only Tim David stepped up to make a mark. In the end, they posted 157 runs on board, which according to Boucher was not enough at the Wankhede.

“(Ajinkya) Rahane played some good cricket shots but it was their bowling that hurt us at the end of the day. Look at our bowlers and their batters. We have not had enough runs on the board. In the game of T20 cricket, especially, now when we have impact players, we had seven batters today. For us to make 157 was not good enough on that wicket. We probably should have got 180-190,” the 46-year-old added.