IND vs SL: Gautam Gambhir faces backlash over his tweet on Suryakumar Yadav

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has heaped praise on Suryakumar Yadav following his heroics in the third T20I against Sri Lanka on Saturday. Yadav played a spectacular knock in the series decider as he smashed an unbeaten century to help his team post a mammoth total and win the game by a massive margin of 91 runs. Yadav was named the player of the match for his brilliant knock of 112 not out off 51 balls. 

After the match, Gambhir took to his official Twitter handle to laud Yadav for playing the brilliant innings in Rajkot. The 2011 World Cup-winning player backed Yadav to feature in the longest format for India. "What a knock @surya_14kumar! Time to put him in test cricket! #SKYscraper," Gambhir wrote in his tweet. Meanwhile, Gambhir's post on Yadav has triggered a huge debate on social media with fans questioning the plausibility of the tweet. 

Gambhir faces backlash

Fans not only trolled Gambhir for what they said was an unreasonable demand but they also fired some credible arguments to dismiss the former India opener's tweet. One user pointed out that Yadav is already 32 years old and playing in all three formats for India might hamper his white-ball game. Another individual said that it would be best for Yadav to play only T20Is and ODIs for India.  

Suryakumar Yadav in T20Is

Yadav is yet to make his red-ball debut for Team India but he has played 16 ODIs and 45 T20Is for the Men in Blue. Yadav's record in T20Is is phenomenal as he has scored 1578 runs at an average of 46.41, including three centuries and 13 half-centuries. He has a strike rate of over 180 in the shortest format, the highest for any player from ICC full-member nations. Yadav has scored 384 runs in ODIs at an average of 32.00, including two fifties. 

Yadav now stands second on the list of players to score the most number of centuries in T20I cricket. While Yadav hit his 3rd century in the format on Saturday, Rohit Sharma (4) is the only player to score more hundreds than him. Glenn Maxwell, Colin Munro, and Sabawoon Davizi are the other cricketers who have three T20I centuries to their credit.

Image: AP/PTI