Kolkata, Sept. 16 -- It was a match that India couldn't afford to lose, but Suryakumar Yadav couldn't have said that aloud. Instead, he took the smart route -- got on with the things he could control -- got his tactics spot on and steered the team to a comfortable win with a calm bat. Only when the match was done did he speak a few words, and that was all that was needed to be spoken. All with a smile on his face, Surya style. It's too early to talk about Suryakumar's legacy in Indian cricket. He is not a scorer in the conventional mould. Yet his batting has been highly spoken of, purely because of the audacity with which he has been targeting the most obscure corners with the most unorthodox shots. A team man to the core. Sharp fielder too; remember the catch at Bridgetown in 2024? But probably now it will dawn upon us how he is also this immense leader who can be unmoved by the chaos around him as long as he knows when, where and how to deliver a message for the country without worrying about being judged. As he said later: "I feel a few things in life are ahead of sportsman spirit." It's impossible to understand what must have been going through Suryakumar's mind in the build-up to the toss, how the quietly keyed-up anticipation must have made the decision-making process more arduous than it usually is. Impressively mature, however, was Suryakumar's approach of staying on till the very end. Before this match, his T20 scores against Pakistan were 11, 18, 13, 5 and 7. Sunday's unbeaten 47 thus, had an unshackling effect. "It's a great feeling and it's a perfect return gift for India," Suryakumar said. "This is one box I always wanted to tick, stay there till the end, and it was the need of the hour today. And I loved to stay not out till the end." Also firing the imagination was Suryakumar's no-holds barred bowling tactic, particularly upfront when he gave Jasprit Bumrah three consecutive overs. Two in the powerplay, one in the middle overs and one in the 19th-that has been more or less the strategy with Bumrah all these years. But giving him three back-to-back overs was a subtle but direct message from Suryakumar that he can go to any length for that extra breakthrough in the first six overs. "Till today, he's never bowled three overs in the power play," said Suryakumar. So, we just wanted to try (and see) how things go ahead. And we're very happy we're using him as an attacking option. If he picks two wickets or even if he bowls a tight spell of three overs, then later on, we have good cushion for all the spinners to come over and make our job a little easier. So, we want to use him as an attacking option. And he is very happy with it." On the face of it, using a spin-heavy bowling attack on the slow pitches of UAE is usually a horses for courses approach. To Suryakumar too, it was a no-brainer. "That's what happened a few months back-our team that won the Champions Trophy, they set the tone," he said at the post-match presentation. "But I am always a fan of spinners, because they control the game in the middle and post-powerplay, and I think all the spinners were amazing." But by going left-arm spin heavy with Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav-even deploying the part-time bowling of Abhishek Sharma-against a line-up that had three left-handed batters in the top seven wasn't exactly in line with the data backed matchup strategies we are bombarded with these days. "The coaches, we all sit together, see if there are left-handers, right-handers, how to bowl in the middle, how to start in powerplay," he said. "All this comes with preparation, so when we go on the field, everything moves on autopilot." There's much left in the Asia Cup, as is with Suryakumar's captaincy. The planning is not always only him, but there is a fair bit of instinctiveness that makes his leadership different from his predecessors. Let the results speak for themselves is a good way of operating in a job that is appraised after the T20 World Cup, which is still four months away. As of now though, the SKY, as Suryakumar's fans call him, is golden....