“Washy [Washington] is joining us in Delhi,” Suryakumar said after India’s 29-run win over USA in their campaign-opener. “He is good, everything is fine.”
Washington was sidelined with a side strain after the first ODI against New Zealand last month and has been out of action since then. While he was replaced by Ayush Badoni in the ODI series, India opted not to replace him in their T20 World Cup squad, as the injury was not too serious. Moreover, he was unlikely to be part of the first-choice XI.
In the first half, USA gave India a massive scare by reducing them to 77 for 6. But Suryakumar’s unbeaten 84 off 49 balls lifted them to 161 for 9, which proved to be enough in the end. Suryakumar was confident of rescuing the side but at the same, he said the batters could have been “a little smarter”.
“Only I can tell how much pressure I was feeling,” Suryakumar said. “But at the same time, I had the belief that I had batted in similar situations. And I have played a lot of cricket in the maidans of Mumbai, so I knew if I bat till the end, I can make a difference.
“It was a little different wicket from what it is always at the Wankhede. But at the same time, we knew when we woke up in the morning, there was not a lot of sun outside. The curator and the groundsmen tried their best to prepare the best pitch. But some things are not in their control. There was not enough sunlight to have the pitch rolled and watered. But we cannot be brushing everything under the carpet. We could have batted a little better.
“After winning also you get to learn a lot of things. And today we learnt that we could have batted a little better, or maybe a little smarter. Two small-small partnerships could have got us to 160 rather than one batter or two batters trying to play till the end.”