‘It gave us motivation’- Suryakumar Yadav opens up on Narendra Modi consoling Indian team after World Cup loss to Australia

It’s been only six days since India suffered that heart-breaking loss against Australia in the ODI World Cup 2023 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Indian T20I team is already facing the Aussies in a bilateral T20 series at home. But the majority of the Indian fans are still languishing after the World Cup final defeat.

But as they say, it’s better to move on rather than to get stuck at something that is not going to change and the new T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav also believes the same. In his multiple media interactions after the World Cup, Surya has stated that he is aware that people are hurt by the outcome of the World Cup final and the players are even more hurt. 

But he believes sport is a great teacher and these kinds of losses teach you a lot and you should learn from them. He also urged the fans to keep supporting them like they have been doing throughout the World Cup.

He said, “We will try to do well in the upcoming tournaments and there is an ICC event coming up next year and we will play with the same spirit as this time and hopefully we will win,"

"It has been just 4-5 days since the World Cup got over and all are disappointed, we are also disappointed. But it was great to see the support of our fans in India and all over the world. At the end of the day, it is a sport and it teaches us a lot of things. I want to say that keep supporting us."

Suryakumar Yadav opens up about the Narendra Modi controversy

The right-hander also opened up about the controversy that took place when Indian PM Narendra Modi visited the Indian team’s dressing room post the final loss and consoled the players which was recorded on camera. 

Many people called it a mere publicity stunt while others said that the PM misused his powers as Jay Shah –the secretary of the Indian Cricket Board is Indian Home Minister Amit Shah’s son and all this drama by the PM was done to earn sympathy from people and also infringed the player’s privacy by entering their dressing room.

Surya on the whole incident said, “Just after the World Cup final we were sitting in the dressing room and our Prime Minister Narendra Modi came in and gave us motivation. He met everyone and told us to move on, as it happens in sport and we will have to take it in our stride.”

"It will take some time for us to get over it but his motivational words for those 5-6 minutes and meeting us is a big thing as he is the country's leader. We listened to him carefully, spent time with him, and will try to follow his suggestions."