Suryakumar Yadav is set to be removed as captain of the India T20 team and the all-powerful BCCI Apex Council might be informed of his status even before the squad for the UK tour is selected.
Shreyas Iyer and Tilak Varma have emerged as the top contenders to succeed Surya as the leader of the Indian T20 side. It is expected that BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia will apprise the Apex Council about whether the national selection committee and head coach Gautam Gambhir are on the same page regarding Surya’s removal.
It is clear that if Surya is removed from the captaincy, he won’t also remain in the side as a player after nearly 18 months of non-performance.
Poor IPL Form
“Surya is set to be removed from captaincy. The selectors wanted to wait till the end of the IPL to see whether he can get back to form. Since he looked completely out of form and not just out of runs… a tough call needs to be taken,” a BCCI source aware of the developments told PTI on Wednesday.
“The selectors would be dropping him from the long list and had given an indication that Surya is now out of their scheme of things. Shreyas Iyer and Tilak Varma are contenders to become the next T20 captain.” However, the choice of captaincy isn’t a straightforward one.
Who Can Replace Suryakumar Yadav
As reported by PTI last week, there are a couple of choices. With Surya getting dropped, Shreyas, an IPL-winning skipper, looks an obvious choice. But the left-field choice could be Tilak, who many in the selection committee feel is an ideal candidate given his age.
“Tilak has been made captain for the A series in Sri Lanka to check out his captaincy credentials.” It is understood that Gambhir has certain reservations about Shreyas, who was the captain of KKR in 2024, when the current India head coach was a mentor.
At the time, Shreyas had publicly spoken about being underappreciated, something that didn’t go unnoticed. It’s no secret that Gambhir’s choice is Sanju Samson, who had a wonderful knockout phase during the T20 World Cup, but the selectors aren’t convinced that either the Kerala batter or Ishan Kishan could be consistent for a prolonged period of time.