Talking about how his nickname SKY came about, he said: It (the nickname) came about in 2014/15 when I played for KKR. Then Gauti bhai (Gautam Gambhir) gave the name because Suryakumar Yadav, he said, was too long for everyone, so SKY came from there.

When asked who his best teammates were, the 32-year-old replied: There are many. If you look around, everyone is my best friend. But I love spending time with Ishan (Kishan), Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin. It’s good to be around them.

He also said that Kishan is the biggest joker in the team and also mentioned that Lords is his favorite pitch in England.

Speaking about his particular Suple hit, he said: The term came from tennis-cricket. I saw a lot of those strokes when I was coming home. Supla shot means the ball you hit right behind your back at the wicket as the ball flies toward your head. So it’s kind of like walking behind you.

India will play Australia at the Oval from June 7-11 in the final WTC match.