Sweeps in tow, Suryakumar Yadav conquers the final frontier

Suryakumar Yadav has scored 149 runs in sweep shots alone in IPL 2025. ©BCCI/IPL
To say Suryakumar Yadav is amongst the best batters in T20s is stating the obvious. But even for a T20 batter as exceptional as Suryakumar, there exists a chink in the armour. Most batters' scoring rate dips when they come up against bowlers who can turn the ball away from him and in Suryakumar's case it is basically facing left-arm orthodox and legbreak bowlers. This season he has resorted to his super strength to top the challenge - the sweep shot and the use of angles to manipulate the field.

Since the start of IPL 2018, only twice has Suryakumar managed to score at 140+ strike rate in a season against left-arm orthodox and legbreak bowlers combined - 2023 and 2025. The four spinners that got the better of him the most in this period belonged to one of the two types mentioned above - Yuzvendra Chahal (52 balls, 64 runs, three dismissals), Ravi Bishnoi (32 balls, 39 runs, three dismissals), Ravindra Jadeja (37 balls, 34 runs, two dismissals), and Mitchell Santner (six balls, five runs, two dismissals) - the last one being his team mate this time around.

Suryakumar Yadav vs LA orthodox + legbreak in IPL

Season Runs Balls Dis Ave SR Bnd% 6s
2018 92 72 3 30.66 127.77 15.27 3
2019 118 107 4 29.50 110.28 10.28 2
2020 134 101 3 44.66 132.67 15.84 2
2021 78 67 5 15.60 116.41 14.92 1
2022 87 74 3 29.00 117.56 13.51 3
2023 183 115 2 91.50 159.13 22.60 4
2024 48 40 1 48.00 120.00 12.50 1
2025 210 126 1 210.00 166.66 24.60 9
He arrived in IPL 2025 with little form behind him, averaging under 15 in the five preceding months, and in the season opener at Chepauk, the opposition tied him down with away spin. But by the time he faced them again in the first game of the second round of fixtures, Suryakumar worked his way to some form spending valuable time in the middle and he came up against old foe in Jadeja right away. Of the fourth ball he faced from the bowler, Suryakumar knelt down, put his front foot across and got inside the line of the ball to slog sweep him over square leg - the first time he cleared the ropes of Jadeja's bowling in IPL. The first ball next over, he repeated the shot but placed it slightly towards right of where the previous six was hit. When Jadeja adjusted his lines further wide, Suryakumar swept him hard well in front of square to pick up another boundary.

11 balls. Two fours. Two sixes. 24 runs. Jadeja - check.

Against Noor Ahmad, who dismissed him in the reverse fixture with a wrong one turning away from over the wicket, Suryakumar was even more severe sweeping him in the arc from 180-degrees behind the wicket to wide mid-on and hitting him for five boundaries in the night.

Ravi Shastri, the former India head coach under whom Suryakumar made his international debut, explained the batter's methods on air during the innings against CSK, "the reason why Surya is so good with the sweep shot is that if you watch him closely he is anticipating the pace of the bowler and then the planting of that front foot. When he wants to go fine he gets across with that front leg outside off-stump. When he wants to go square, the front is middle and leg stump line to get that angle right and hit the ball in that area."

Mumbai Indians were starting to gather some momentum in the tournament after a slow start and up next in the way was Bishnoi. In the return fixture in Lucknow earlier in the season which Mumbai lost, Suryakumar had hit Bishnoi for 24 off the 13 balls faced hitting him for four boundaries, all behind square. At Wankhede, Bishnoi was introduced to the attack when Suryakumar came in and he slog swept the first ball from the leggie for a maximum over mid-wicket. He pitched one shorter and was met with the same result. Like Jadeja, Bishnoi also went wider outside off the next ball to take it outside the batter's hitting arch and was responded with a hard sweep along the ground for a boundary to the right of deep square leg.

Two innings. 21 balls. Six fours. Two sixes. 47 runs. Bishnoi - check.

In all, Suryakumar has faced 126 balls from left-arm orthodox and legbreak bowlers this IPL and scored 210 runs at a strike rate of 166.66, getting out just once - the average and strike-rate both highest for him in any season and so is the number of sixes hit (9). He has employed sweeps against them almost every third ball - 41 out of 126 - and he has hit them for boundaries every other ball (14 fours & six sixes).

The reason behind the numbers he is having this season is that he has not been restricted to being a one-trick pony. In the must win game against Delhi Capitals on a slow wicket with appreciable turn against two quality wrist spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam, Suryakumar showed exceptional restraint shelving his repertoire of sweep shots and instead chose to play in front of the wicket largely. He scored at a run-a-ball against spin in the innings, and laid into the seamers instead, smashing them for 59 off 29 balls at a rate of almost two runs a ball.

Only 10 batters have scored more runs than Suryakumar against spin in an IPL season of which one, Glenn Maxwell in 2014, has managed to do it at a better strike-rate. No batter in a season of IPL has scored more runs of sweep shorts or its variants as much as Suryakumar has scored in IPL 2025. 39 of these runs were scored in the fine leg area, 58 in the backward square leg area, and 42 in the forward square leg - mid wicket zone, underlining Suryakumar's skill is using the angles with the same shot.

Most runs off sweep shots in an IPL season

Player Season Runs Balls Dis SR Bnd% 6s
SA Yadav 2025 149 56 0 266.07 50.00 8
S Dhawan 2020 116 45 5 257.77 40.00 10
GJ Maxwell 2024 95 32 1 296.87 56.25 8
AB de Villiers 2016 86 27 0 318.51 51.85 10
SA Yadav 2023 75 35 1 214.28 37.14 3
On Monday (May 26), Mumbai Indians will be up against Punjab Kings in a match with all to play for - the winner gets a berth in Qualifier 1. Should he be declared fit to play, Yuzvendra Chahal will be standing in the way of Suryakumar and Mumbai Indians. Chahal has been exceptional against right handers in this season and will be tasked with to contain Suryakumar in the middle overs, having had the wood over him in the past, alongside the wily Harpreet Brar. How this contest swings will have a big say in who is going to come out on top in the crucial game.