Suryakumar Yadav scored a 25-ball 43 against Kolkata Knight Riders on IPL (Indian Premier League) captaincy debut at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.

The swashbuckling batter came into the game on the back of a string of low scores, which included four golden ducks in the last six innings. He was dismissed off the first ball he faced in Mumbai’s last IPL 2023 match against Delhi Capitals.

However, standing in for regular skipper Rohit Sharma, who was out of the starting playing XI due to a stomach bug, Suryakumar led from the front and steered Mumbai’s chase with a composed knock, that included some of his trademark flicks for six behind square.

Suryakumar started off tentatively as he was beaten first ball by Suyash Sharma and then got an inside edge while defending a Varun Chakravarthy delivery. However, Suryakumar was up and running off the third ball he faced as he cut a short delivery from Chakravarthy between cover and backward point to the boundary.

He then smashed Lockie Ferguson for back-to-back sixes, first playing a pickup shot over fine-leg and then flicking the next one over midwicket. His third six had Suryakumar written all over it as he shuffled across his stumps and deposited Andre Russell behind deep square-leg.

With Mumbai within touching distance of the win, Suryakumar got an edge to the wicketkeeper while trying to ramp a Shardul Thakur delivery to the third-man fence.