Buried in peels of laughter, Suryakumar Yadav posed a counter-question: “Kisne bola? Maine toh nahin suna! “Who told you? I didn’t hear!” The floor rolled in chuckles too. The question, in effect, was this: “Are India the outright favourites to win the tournament?” Gathering his poise, even though flashing an impish smile, he offered the most routine answer: “If the preparations are good, we would have a good tournament. The preparations have been good. We came here early, had good nets and looked in good shape.” Then he summoned the well-worn cliché: “T20 is a fast game. No one is a favourite.”
The supremacy of India has been the predominant theme in the prelude to the series. While the Indian captain, having tasted only four defeats in 22 games, did not boast about the bleeding obvious of his group’s utter domination in the last two years, he acted like one, with the relaxed authority of a leader who knows his well-drilled troop is primed for the battle and storms in the desert, who could on most days laugh their ways to victories. Most members of his side are returning from a welcome break, even the Test regulars such as Jasprit Bumrah and Shubman Gill had sufficient succour to refresh themselves after the gruelling tour to England. The rest, Sanju Samson aside, who was busy breaking roofs of the Greenfield Stadium in the Kerala Cricket League, had but featured in scant games after the IPL. There are no injury woes or fitness and form concerns; this is the closest to India’s first-choice eleven, even though a parallel eleven of discards could form an equally compelling eleven on paper. Suryakumar could, thus, afford to find the funnier side in every question posed to him. Life as captain is as sunny as the Dubai sun.
At the start of the interaction, he was asked about the heat in Dubai, he pretended to shiver and ran his palms over his hands, and playfully replied: “I think it’s pleasant. I am not feeling the heat.” He provided more spontaneous comedy than any of the recent Bollywood movies. Compliments on his hair-cut were frivolously brushed aside. As were suggestions of change in the team: “Why should we, when everything is working?”
A smile always played on his lips. Like when he was asked about the part-time bowlers in his side, including himself, he turned to Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka, on the neighbouring chair and told him: “I don’t think Charith will be too happy to be reminded of that game when I bowled.” He was recalling the game against them in Pallekele, where his innocuous off-breaks in the last over contained Sri Lanka and stretched the match to the Super Over, where India won.
Asalanka giggled like a teenager before gazing admiringly at him. He often whispered something in his ears. As did Rashid Khan, his neighbour to the right. Familiar heroes in the IPL, they frequently kept chatting and laughing. Suryakumar, with his natural wit, remained the centre of attraction. Every captain looked attentively at him when he answered the questions, as though they were marvelled as much by his 360-degree halo as his way with words. Most questions, inevitably, came back to him and his team.
Rashid, though, was the opposite of Suryakumar, impatient and fretful, wanting the interaction to end at the earliest. So that he could reach Abu Dhabi at the earliest to get in groove for the match against Hong Kong later on Tuesday evening. “It’s not ideal. But as professionals we can’t complain and think too much about it. We are used to it. I remember a game I played in the US, soon after flying from Bangladesh, where I was playing in the league,” he said.
To Suryakumar’s left was Asalanka, who was on the verge of yawning. Less than 48 hours ago, they were playing in blustery, windy Harare. “I am feeling very sleepy. It’s hard to play back to back games. Hopefully, the coach will give a couple of days off,” he said. Suryakumar, in absolute contrast, was fresh and bouncing. Nothing seemed to bother, not even the fact that India played their last T20 as far back as February 2. “Most of them had a good IPL,” he reminded. He doused a trickily phrased granite on players showing more ‘temper’ in India-Pakistan games. “Temper?” he asked and paused, amused rather than irritated. “Aggression is always there when you take the field. Without it you can’t play the sport,” he added.
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The question was addressed to both him and Salman Agha, who too dealt adeptly with it. “If someone wants to be aggressive, they are more than welcome to do that. When it comes to fast bowlers, they are always aggressive and you can’t stop them because that’s what keeps them going. There is no instruction to anyone from me, as long as it stays on the field, ” he said.
Agha, characteristically measured in his tone, seemed a relieved captain after the recent upturn of form. “We have won three of the last four series, and as a team we are playing good cricket.” He deflected another potential landmine of looking beyond Babar Azam, a perpetual debate in Pakistan. He was not baited into headline worthy lines on facing India. He was largely sombre, except when Suryakumar wise-cracked.
There was one final dollop of wit from Surya. The question: “Will Sanju be in the eleven?” Putting on a straight face, he answered: “Sir, I will message you the playing eleven tomorrow.” He offered assurance: “We will take good care of him. Don’t worry, we will make the correct decision tomorrow.” Laughter shook the hall. Those were perhaps his verbal fireworks before the real one began.
