IPL 2020: 'I just trusted him blindly,' Mumbai Indians' Suryakumar Yadav hails Rohit Sharma

Mumbai Indians (MI) batsman Suryakumar Yadav has hailed Rohit Sharma, saying he has trusted his skipper "blindly".

The right-hander, Suryakumar, recently was the Player of the Match for his knock of 79 from 47 balls in MI's 57-run win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. He struck 11 fours and two sixes as he led MI to 193 for 4 in 20 overs.

Suryakumar, who made his First-Class debut a decade ago, has struggled in every phase of his career. The Indian T20 league has played a major role in helping his career go upwards. Having spent two years with MI, Suryakumar moved to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). However, all he could manage there were the 20s or 30s and that did not help him climb to the next level in his career. The leap happened when the Mumbai batsman returned to MI two years back.

"I have enjoyed both the roles, I have kept my options open. Even when I started playing domestic cricket for Mumbai I batted low but later on based on the performance I was given a chance to bat higher up the order. For KKR I batted lower down the order and later on when I came here in MI they gave the responsibility of anchoring the innings," Suryakumar told Hindustan Times on Thursday.

"Since the last 2-3 years, I have matured a little bit. I've got clarity in mind about what I want from the game and how to approach things. I realised that if I keep running behind one thing, it'll keep going far away from me so instead of that I've just kept focus on small things which I can do. If I think about the goal alone then the process goes missing so I thought giving more importance to the process," Suryakumar added.

Speaking about Rohit's role in his career over the last couple of years, Suryakumar said, "Since 2018, when I started batting higher up the order for MI, I've tried the same things he told me, nothing different, I just trusted him blindly. I obviously knew what my game was but I obviously know what he was trying to tell me. He's always there, be it on the ground, during the game, practice sessions, in the gym. Whenever we meet there is always a conversation."

Adding further, the 30-year-old said whenever he gets the chance to speak to Rohit, he tries to learn as much as he can, especially about batting at the top of the order. "All the time he tells me what he did when he started playing, shares his experience, tries to explain different situations that he has gone through," Suryakumar added