Promoted As T20I Captain Over Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav Made His Leadership Stance Clear

Suryakumar Yadav was preferred for the T20I captaincy role by the BCCI over Hardik Pandya, who has been Rohit Sharma’s deputy in the format for a long time.


Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma© BCCI/Sportzpics

India’s newly-crowned T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav, was given the team’s leadership responsibility on Thursday. Though it looked like Hardik Pandya would get the role, having been Team India’s vice-captain under Rohit Sharma for a long time, the all-rounder’s repeated fitness issues prompted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee to look for an alternative. After Surya was named the team’s skipper in the shortest format, an old video of his emerged on social media in which the new ‘captain’ could be seen talking about his mindset as a leader.

Star Sports shared the clip on social media, in which Suryakumar spoke about his captaincy Matra. The video is from 2023 when Surya had led the Indian team to a 4-1 triumph against Australia and then a 1-1 draw against South Africa in the shortest format.

 

“I am really enjoying this new role, enjoying spending time with everybody and we all have played together a lot either in franchise cricket or in state cricket, so it’s not that difficult to understand their strengths and weaknesses. And off the field we also spend so much time so the rapport we have on the field become very good,” he said in the video.

“It’s important for me to keep things simple, I am a process-oriented man, I like to keep things simple and that’s what I try and tell everybody that try and keep things really simple, don’t try and be a different version of yourself,” he added.

Shubman Gill who led the Men in Blue in the recently concluded T20I series against Zimbabwe, will be Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy in the forthcoming three-match 20-over series against Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, star India all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who last led the team was not given the responsibility to lead the side.

 

Pacers Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, and wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant were also called in the T20I squad after they were given rest for India’s tour of Zimbabwe.

The India’s tour of Sri Lanka will be starting from July 27 onwards. The tour will kick-start with a three-match T20I series, followed by a three-match ODI series, which will start from August 1.