India's very own 360-degree batter, Suryakumar Yadav was in sublime touch on Thursday (June 20) as he led the charge for the team with the willow in hand against Afghanistan and delivered a Player of the Match (POTM) performance.
Suryakumar helped the Men in Blue get their first win on the board in the Super Eight stage of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup and climb to the top spot in Group 1.
Suryakumar, 33, scored 53 off just 28 deliveries and smashed five boundaries and three maximums during his stay in the middle. The right-handed batter walked into bat in the seventh over of the game and was tasked to inject momentum into India's innings.
Before he could get his eye in, India lost Virat Kohli and they were in a spot of bother at 62/3 in 8.3 overs.
Despite the predicament, the Mumbai-born showed character and played a sublime knock to help India post 181 on a surface that had enough in it to keep the bowlers interested.
Suryakumar's knock helped him equal Virat Kohli's record for the most Player of the Match (POTM) awards in T20I cricketing history. The middle-order batter has now won 15 such awards in his 64-match-long T20I career and is likely to overtake Virat in the foreseeable future.
Most Player of the Match awards in T20Is
| Player | Player of the Match awards | Total matches played |
| Suryakumar Yadav | 15 | 64 |
| Virat Kohli | 15 | 121 |
| Virandeep Singh | 14 | 78 |
| Sikandar Raza | 14 | 86 |
Notably, Virat has almost played double the number of games (120) compared to Suryakumar and therefore it reflects the kind of impact the latter has created in such a short span of time.
Team India won the game by 47 runs and will now take on Bangladesh in their second Super Eight clash on Saturday, June 22. The eagerly-anticipated clash will be played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua.
India's final Super Eight game will see them square off against Australia at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet, St Lucia on Monday, June 24.
