AUS vs IND 2025: '20 off 10 from Suryakumar Yadav was extremely valuable' - R Ashwin defends under-fire Indian captain after 4th T20I

Ravichandran Ashwin came out in the defence of Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav after the Men in Blue took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series against Australia, winning the fourth T20I at the Carrara Oval in Queensland by 48 runs.

Suryakumar, who has been struggling for runs of late, played a quickfire knock of 20 off 10 balls, hitting two sixes off Adam Zampa in the first innings. While the volume of runs wasn't too huge, Ashwin believes that the rate at which it came injected some much-needed momentum into the tourists' innings. In partnership with Shubman Gill, Suryakumar added 33 runs off 16 deliveries.

Ashwin said that such knocks are handy in the shortest format of the game, especially on pitches which are not very friendly for the batters.