Ishan Kishan has been in scintillating form, can replace Suryakumar Yadav in India playing XI: Salman Butt

The former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has opened up on the form of India batter Suryakumar Yadav. According to him, Ishan Kishan can be a good alternative who can replace Yadav in playing XI. The keeper-batter looked in fine touch in the warm-up match against England. Kishan scored 70 runs in the match and his innings included as many as seven fours and three sixes.

Yadav, on the other hand. has been struggling a tad bit with his form. He got dismissed with just eight runs to his account in the practice game. In the UAE leg of the IPL as well, the batter wasn’t at his absolute best. He scored only 144 runs in seven matches in the second half of the IPL while 82 of those runs came in MI’s last league game.

Thus, Butt shed light on Yadav’s form and suggested that Kishan can replace him in the squad. He feels that India should go with Ishan owing to his splendid form and also backed the keeper-batter to produce match-winning knocks.

“Suryakumar Yadav’s flow is not the same as what we saw in Sri Lanka. Even in the IPL, if we take out the one innings in the final match of the UAE leg, he did not play a fluent knock in any of the other matches. If concerns over his form remain, Ishan Kishan can replace him in the playing XI. He has been in scintillating form. I feel if India has to pick between Suryakumar and Ishan, they should go with the latter on the current form. He can play game-changing knocks,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.

If Ishan Kishan plays, it will also help the left-right combination: Salman Butt

With the presence of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli, India has three right-handers in the top order. However, if Ishan plays, the team will have two left-handers in the middle order, the other one being Pant. Butt mentioned these points and stated that it will help India in having a left-right combination.

“If Kishan plays instead of Suryakumar Yadav, India will have two left-handers in the middle-order (Rishabh Pant being the other one), so it will also help the left-right combo. India’s top three are all right-handers. Down the order, there is Ravindra Jadeja as well, so there will be depth in the team as well,” Butt added.