Being calm in tight situations is key to handling pressure: Suryakumar Yadav

Ahmedabad: When India take the field against New Zealand in the final of the T20 World Cup on Sunday, they’ll be chasing their fourth major title in the last two years. Since winning the last edition in 2024 in the Americas, the Men In Blue have triumphed in the ICC Champions Trophy as well as the Asia Cup — both in the West Asia.

The recipe for their success, apart from playing incredibly consistent cricket, is their ability to handle pressure effectively. Even in this tournament, when they were pushed to a corner by South Africa in the opening Super Eights game that turned the remainder of the competition into knockouts, they’ve conjured their best. They walloped Zimbabwe and West Indies and held their composure in a high-speed chase against England in the semifinals to sneak into their fourth T20 World Cup final.

So how is the team able to consistently raise the bar when the tide is high? India skipper Suryakumar Yadav, addressing a press conference packed with over 100 journalists here at the Narendra Modi Stadium, said doing the hard yards in training is what keeps them in good stead during match situations.

“See, I think handling pressure is all about how calm you are in tight situations. For example, I know it's not that easy, but then when you are in your practice sessions training, at that time if you put a lot of pressure on yourself, taking those difficult catches, batting in difficult situations, thinking about that, like mentally being ready in practice sessions. When you go in the game, you know you have done all these things before in practice. So all these things are really important.

"And obviously talking to each other, this feels like a proper family. So you can turn up to any player, any support staff, because even the support staff have been in similar situations before when they have played. So talking to each other I think helps a lot to be very calm and composed.”

India and New Zealand locked horns in a bilateral limited-overs series just before the World Cup, with the former winning the T20Is and the latter bagging the ODI spoils. When asked if he sees a different New Zealand on Sunday as compared to the one in January, Suryakumar said he expected a competitive final. "I haven't seen their matches. I don't watch cricket matches on TV. I think the team must be similar. One or two things must have changed. The last game, the team was 95% the same. But they have been playing good cricket here. We are also playing good cricket. I am sure it will be a good game tomorrow.

“Everyone obviously is very excited to play the final tomorrow. And they have been one of the sides who've been very tactical. They come with a good plan. But we also have our plans. We've been preparing for such a big stage. So we'll be completely focused on what we want to do rather than what others think about our team.”

Suryakumar, who took over from the likeable Rohit Sharma, said he’s just continued to follow the same blueprint as his Mumbai mate. “I got to learn a lot of things from him when I was playing under him. So I also followed the same strategy, going into the dressing room with the experience of Gauti bhai (head coach Gautam Gambhir). Obviously, his experience was also very vital. And where he left off in 2024, I played a lot of cricket with him. I know how he worked. So I tried to implement the same things with a few thoughts of my own. And it's worked really well. Hopefully, it goes really well tomorrow also and for many more years to come.”