Asia Cup 2022 | Words fall short for the kind of innings Suryakumar Yadav played, claims Rohit Sharma

India are comfortably through to the Super Four phase of the Asia Cup after they registered a 40-run victory against Hong Kong. It was business as usual for the Men in Blue given they were expected to sail through easily and that is how it transpired on the back of an impressive batting performance.

Rohit Sharma set the stage well with an aggressive 21. At the same time, KL Rahul anchored the innings with a slow 36 off 39 deliveries, allowing Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav to go gung ho later on. The duo ended up with a 98-run partnership off just 48 balls, setting up a commendable target of 193 which proved to be too big for Kong Kong. Even though late fireworks made for some entertainment, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravindra Jadeja's bowling efforts meant the opponents eventually ended up losing by quite a large margin.   

"We batted pretty well to start with, and got to a very good score at the end, and came out and bowled reasonably well. Thought we could have done slightly better with the ball," the Indian skipper summed up his team's performance as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo.

Yadav was pretty much the only contender for man of the match, given his extraordinary knock of 68 off 28. While all other batters struggled to get going, the Mumbaikar struck six sixes and as many fours to steer India forward. The number three ranked batsman in the world was at his vintage best, smashing the ball to all parts of the ground.

"Honestly the kind of innings that played today, the words will be short. Every now and then, he comes up with such kind of knocks. With the confidence he's got, he's going to come out and bat fearlessly, and some of the shots he played today, they are not in the books. The shot selection was also crucial, we know he can play all around the park, and that's what he did today," he stated.

Interestingly, Yadav was restored to his usual number four position having lost out to Ravindra Jadeja in the first game. Sharma admitted that a dynamic batting order was crucial to the team's plans.

" It is something we want to keep in our minds. We've also informed the group about this. Most of the guys are ready to take the opportunity and bat wherever they need to. We can talk about flexibility but you have to go out there and do it too. When we see the right match-ups, we're going to try and use that," he explained.