Since rejoining Mumbai Indians (MI) from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2018, Suryakumar Yadav has taken the Indian Premier League (IPL) by storm, becoming a vital cog in the team’s batting unit. In IPL 2018, Suryakumar scored 512 runs, and backed it up with 424 and 480 in the next two seasons. Despite scoring only 181 runs in IPL 2021, the stylish batsman is still an MI fan-favourite. Speaking to Star Sports on Thursday, Gautam Gambhir stated that releasing Suryakumar Yadav has to be KKR’s “biggest loss”. The 2011 World Cup winner also revealed that not using Suryakumar at No.3 is his only regret as KKR skipper.

“My only regret was that we couldn’t push him at No.3. We always wanted him to bat at No.3 because we had Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan. So, we had to use him as a finisher. From KKR’s point of view, this has to be their biggest loss – letting go (of) Suryakumar Yadav. Because someone you groom for four years and then you let him go. And now, he is on at peak of his career,” said Gambhir.

Gambhir also explained that while Suryakumar didn’t score many runs during his time with KKR, he was also never utilised in the right manner.

“Because we couldn’t give him that position, he couldn’t get those 400, 500 or 600 runs in a season. Someone’s loss could be someone’s massive gain. That’s exactly what has happened with Mumbai Indians. KKR let go of him and now he has become a mainstay of MI’s batting line-up,” he further added.

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Suryakumar began his IPL career in 2012 with MI but played only one fixture. He moved to KKR in 2014, where he played 54 games over four years.

MI bought him for Rs 3.2 crore in 2018 and the batsman hasn’t looked back since. He made his India debut this year and has also been selected for the upcoming T20 World Cup.