India’s 360-degree batter Suryakumar Yadav has revealed the origin behind his popular nickname ‘SKY’. Notably, Surya is currently preparing for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 Final scheduled at the Oval in Kennington from Wednesday (June 7). The 32-year-old cricketer has been included as the reserve player in the Indian team’s squad alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mukesh Kumar.
On Friday (June 2), Surya indulged in a rapid-fire interview where he opened up about many things and even went on to reveal the identity of the person who gave him the famous nickname ‘SKY’. The video of the same was released by the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) on their official Twitter handle.
In the clip, Surya disclosed that he got the nickname from former India opener Gautam Gambhir during his days with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) back in 2014-15.
“I think it came in 2014-15 when I was playing for my franchise KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders), that time Gauti (Gautam Gambhir) bhaiya gave this name because Surya Kumar Yadav, he said was too long for everyone to call, so SKY,” said Surya.
Further in the interview, Surya also named his favourite city in the United Kingdom (UK), favourite English breakfast, favourite teammate, the biggest prankster in the team and favourite sports movie. He even talked about his popular ‘Supla Shot’ and gave a piece of advice to the young cricketers as well.
Here’s the video:
The origin of nickname ‘SKY’ 😎
Favourite city in the UK 🏙️
Favourite English breakfast 🍴This and a lot-more in Rapid-Fire ⚡️⚡️ with @surya_14kumar 😃👌🏻 – By @RajalArora #TeamIndia | #WTC23 pic.twitter.com/AgKJN7oErg
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 2, 2023
Speaking of Surya’s recent performance, the right-handed batter ended the recently concluded IPL 2023 on a very high note and amassed 605 runs in 16 matches for Mumbai Indians (MI). He also became the fourth-highest non-opener player to score 600+ runs in a single IPL season. However, despite Surya’s exploit, MI failed to sail in the final of the event and were eliminated by Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Qualifier 2.
