‘The banter was very instinctive’ – Suryakumar Yadav on his controversy with Virat Kohli

Mumbai Indians’ (MI) batsman Suryakumar Yadav has opened up on the entire controversy surrounding him and Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli. Back in October, during a clash between their teams at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Suryakumar and Virat had a bit of an altercation that grabbed the headlines to an extent.

Surya, who became the Player of the Match in that encounter, brushed off the speculations, saying that the incident was “instinctive”. The MI batter also lauded the 32-year-old for showing his class across formats over the years and all around the world.

“It was fun out there, I was under pressure, but I wanted to deliver badly in that game as I knew a big game was coming for Mumbai Indians because we thought if we would’ve won that game, we would have gone on top of the table and I badly wanted to get runs in that game and I was really happy to contribute at that moment,” Yadav was quoted as saying to Sports Tak.

I have been looking up to him: Suryakumar Yadav

“The banter was very instinctive from both ends because I have been looking up to him since he has been dominating world cricket for a long time. His energy, his domination, everything has been spot on in whatever format he plays for whatever team.”

On the back of Surya’s 43-ball 79, MI won the match by five wickets and with five balls to spare. His knock was laced with 10 fours and three sixes. The 30-year-old was happy to have performed his role with precision, taking his team to the top of the ladder.

“I was really happy and I was excited as well that there’s a lot of responsibility on my shoulder currently. It will be great if I take the team ahead and win it for Mumbai and take them to the top,” he added.

Surya, with his flamboyant display of strokeplay, grabbed a lot of eyeballs. But despite his consistent show, he couldn’t feature in India’s limited-overs squads for the tour of Australia. Nevertheless, his IPL team, MI, went on to win the title for the fifth time in eight years.