Mumbai Indians batsman Surya Kumar Yadav could have been
crestfallen after his name was overlooked for Indian squad chosen for the Australia
tour, but it was his captain who diffused the situation and prodded the versatile
cricketer to keep performing.

Yadav in an interview to PTI, recalled that he was very
disappointed after he was overlooked for the team despite a string of good performances, Rohit Sharma calmed him down telling him he was playing good, and asked him to continue.

“That time in the gym Rohit was sitting beside me and he just
looked at me, and I said, ‘obviously, I am a bit disappointed’, because he
could see that I was expecting some good news,” Suryakumar told PTI.

“Later on he was like ‘I just believed you have been
doing a great job for the team right now, and instead of thinking about that
(non-selection), you just do the same things what you have been since day one
in this IPL. And when the time is right, your opportunity will come, may be
today or tomorrow but it will come, you just got to believe in yourself’,”
he said. 

The snub was not a fleeing moment for the 30-year-old
batsman, and it lingered in his mind for quite some time. Before he was
pulled out from the depths of despondence, Yadav tried to divert his mind by
spending time at the gym.

He said words that came from Sharma helped him a lot, coming
at the right moment.

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“I sat in a room and started thinking, why my name is
not there, but after looking at the squad there were lot of players who got lot
of runs as well and even they have been playing consistently, doing well for
India, doing well in IPL.

“Then I thought instead of thinking about that, I’ll
just try and keep scoring runs, do my job, what’s in my hand, what’s in my
control, and then wait for the opportunity, whenever it comes, grab with both
hands,” he said.

“But yes, at the back of the mind, there was a thought
that the team is coming out tonight,” he admitted.

Yadav had an amazing run this season in the IPL, concluded
recently, and played a crucial role in getting his team a record fifth IPL
title.

He totaled 480 runs in 14 matches, with four fifties, scoring
at a blazing strike rate of 145.01.

The player, fond of
leg side, also spoke about his resolve to learn to play shots all around
the park. He said since he played Ranji Trophy a lot, it will not do if he kept
scoring on the on-side and not working on his off-side skills.

“Before I used to love playing on leg-side, but then
later on I thought, if you have to play well and score runs at this level with
so much of competition you got to, practise hard and take the other side as
well.

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“Then I started practising even more, playing off-side
strokes, because I used to love playing Ranji Trophy and in four-day cricket,
you can’t actually survive playing on one side, then I started enjoying more
batting on off side as well, built a few strokes,” he said.