Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 31 (IANS) India captain Suryakumar Yadav said he was relieved to rediscover his form ahead of the Men’s T20 World Cup after being named Player of the Series in India’s 4-1 victory over New Zealand.

After a horrid 2025, where he failed to hit a fifty, Suryakumar struck three fifties, including a fine 63 in a 46-run win over New Zealand at the Greenfield International Stadium on Saturday.

“It feels really good. It’s been a long year and a long wait for moments like this. I’ve always dreamed about when this time would come. You actually said it before the last series in Ahmedabad - when SKY is there, don’t fear.

“I just kept doing the same things I’d been doing over the last year, stuck to my routines. I knew I wasn’t out of form, just out of runs. It’s been a very good series, and going into the World Cup feeling like this is really special,” said Suryakumar in the post-match presentation ceremony.

Reflecting on his struggles, he added, “I think the sky wasn’t blue for a year, (smiles). But that’s life. It’s part of the journey. I took it in my stride, went back to the drawing board, tried to understand what was going wrong.

“After the last series, I got two or three weeks where I spent time with close friends - they told me a few important things I needed to follow. That’s a sportsperson’s life. I’ve seen so many careers - not just in cricket - where people go through these phases.

“I knew my time would come if I kept doing the small things right. I’m really happy with how things have turned out,” he said.

Looking ahead to preparations for the T20 World Cup, Suryakumar said, “Definitely, whether you win or lose, you always take something from the game. When we go back to Mumbai and play a warm-up game against South Africa, we’ll sit down and analyse the last five games and the year as a whole - what we’ve done well and what we can improve. Then we start our campaign.”

He also praised New Zealand’s fight in the final game, where they fell 46 runs short of chasing India’s 271/5. “This format is really hard on bowlers - I completely understand that. When you score big runs, you have to expect the opposition to come hard at you.

“As a captain and as a bowling unit, you’re always under pressure. The key is having good plans. It’s all part of the learning process. We’ll sit down, talk it through, and move forward.”

New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner said his side had taken positives despite losing the series. “I think when you look at the series as a whole, we’ve taken a lot of positives. India are a very good team - I said that right at the start - and in their own conditions they’re extremely tough to beat. Maybe we push the ropes back a little for the bowlers (laughs), but overall, it’s entertaining cricket at the end of the day,” he said.

He added that the series against India would help New Zealand prepare for the World Cup. “I think when you’re challenged throughout a series, that’s always a good thing. You put both your bowlers and batters under pressure, and you can only learn from that. From that point of view, it’s been a really good series for us. Obviously, the results haven’t gone our way, but there are learnings from every single game.”

On the lessons for the bowling unit, Santner said, “It’s not easy. As a bowling unit, we’ve got to find ways against very good batters - guys who deal in boundaries and sixes. Maybe it’s about turning those big overs into 15 or 16, especially on flat pitches, knowing that even 230 can be chaseable.”

--IANS

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