When Suryakumar Yadav arrived at the crease with India at 6 for 2 in the second over, anticipation cut through the cold Raipur air. In that same over, Jacob Duffy pushed one across him. It nipped away and beat the outside edge. Duffy lingered in his follow-through, admiring the seam movement. Suryakumar stared down at the pitch, almost betrayed by how eagerly it had sided with the bowler.

For months now, Suryakumar has insisted that there was nothing wrong with his form - that it hadn't eluded him as much as runs had. Even if the distinction was minor, he made it. Even if there were technical issues seeping into his game, he was adamant that his methods were fine, his hitting range in the nets was fine, and that a notable knock was around the corner.

But here's the thing about T20 batting - it offers belief but never certainty. Otherwise, Abhishek Sharma's first-ball flick in Raipur would've landed in the second tier of the square-leg fence instead of heading straight into Devon Conway's hands. All Suryakumar reinforced over weeks and months was that the mental side of his game was in mint condition - the split-second decisions that batters need to make were coming off along expected lines, at least in training. Which is why, even in a format with such extreme variance, his insistence about form may not have been denial.

Eventually, nature healed as far as Suryakumar was concerned, his numbers on Friday night screaming typical: 82 off 37 with nine fours and four sixes. It was a dramatic end to a dry spell that had stretched across 24 T20I innings without a fifty, all the way back to October 2024. This knock was also a reminder about the importance of timing in this lottery-like format - not the kind measured by how cleanly the bat meets the ball, but the one where chances finally stop slipping through batters' fingers. This particular opportunity staying clenched in Suryakumar's tightly-shut fist also had an ally at the other end, one who knows a thing or two about timing of a third kind.

The Nagpur game was Ishan Kishan's first T20I since November 2023, but getting plucked out of such wilderness was not random. India pressing pause on Shubman Gill in the T20I top order had knock-on effects. It reunited Sanju Samson with Abhishek Sharma at the top, and in doing so, reshaped what the squad needed next.

The requirement now was for the back-up keeper to be cut from a similar cloth - a top-order option. Out went Jitesh Sharma and his middle-order skills, and Kishan became the natural beneficiary of this rethink. But this opportunity was earned, not handed out. It came on the back of a blistering, title-winning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign where he smashed 517 runs in 10 matches at a strike rate of 197.33.

Even now, Kishan finds himself in India's XI only until Tilak Varma is fit and ready to reclaim his No.3 spot. But beyond those uncontrollable circumstances, Kishan showed in Raipur that he belonged, and in doing so, freed his captain from the clutches of a long-standing rut.

Kishan was in the same shaky boat as his captain at the start - India were two down early in a chase of a 200-plus total and in need of maximising the PowerPlay without letting New Zealand trigger a collapse. A 24-run Zakary Foulkes over got Kishan whirring, as the ball flew through and over the off-side field before a flick landed among the fans. Duffy returned and looked to lure the left-hander with a similar outside-the-off-stump line, but he too got thumped for fours. Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry, with all their experience, couldn't change the direction of the chase as Kishan rose to a 21-ball half-century inside the PowerPlay.

India had 75 for 2 in six overs, Kishan roasting New Zealand with 10 fours in this period, which offered Suryakumar the rarity of time in a T20I innings. Perhaps he couldn't have afforded this luxury had India batted first, but here, knowing that Kishan was driving the team well ahead of the asking rate allowed him to breathe. After six overs, Suryakumar had batted just eight balls for as many runs.

"I don't know what Ishan had for lunch in the afternoon or what pre-workout he had before the game, but I've never seen anyone bat at 6 for 2 in that manner and still end the powerplay around 67 or 70. I thought it was incredible," Suryakumar would say later.

Batters often talk about being in the right headspace. It's perhaps the mental side of the game which is ignited by form, which itself is attributed to that very head space. Kishan's approach told you everything you needed to know about where he was within this fascinating loop: there was no hesitation to his bat swing, and it came far too frequently for New Zealand's liking. When Suryakumar brought up the 100-run partnership with a four off Foulkes, he was still basking in Kishan's glory, motoring along at 19 off 13.

But this passage of play became the inflexion point. The 25-run over had Suryakumar guiding a short ball to the third man fence, hooking another for a six and creaming the overcorrection in length through covers for a four. Suryakumar was now dancing like the tune was his again - shots aimed over his favourite fine-leg region landing deep into the crowd, and improvisations with footwork and shot selection paid off. He raced to a 23-ball half-century, countered Duffy's short deliveries and tormented Foulkes once more with shots down the ground.

As India moved 2-0 up in the series, Suryakumar could walk off wearing a quiet, earned arrogance about his batting. It was an evening of vindication for the India captain, echoing what he had been saying all along. Does it also hint at what's to come in the rest of the series and the World Cup next? In T20s, there are no such guarantees, and even he'll know that.