Kolkata: It’s not easy being Suryakumar Yadav right now. T20 captaincy often landed on his lap as an interim job but he still tried to make the best of what he was given – 17 wins, four defeats and one tie with India is ample proof of that resolve.
Under him, India won 4-1 at home against Australia in 2023 and drew 1-1 in South Africa before Rohit Sharma came back to lead in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Now, Shubman Gill has entered the fray as vice-captain, possibly to become an all-format captain like Virat Kohli. Which should be after the 2026 T20 World Cup, giving Yadav – he turns 35 next month – probably around six months to script a story of his own.
There is an occupational hazard in being compared with Rohit, Kohli or MS Dhoni if you are an India captain. Nowhere close to that league but every bit a team man, Surya has looked very composed as a captain but seemed to have lost his mojo as batter. From the 150s his strike rate has dropped to 116.66 this year. He managed just 26 runs in three innings against South Africa last year before slumping to 28 runs in five innings – including two ducks – against England earlier this year. That it was probably nothing was evident in the way Surya smashed 717 runs at a strike rate of 167.92 in this IPL. Then came the sports hernia surgery that sidelined him for a while.
No harm done really since India weren’t playing white-ball cricket in the last three months. Yet, there will be intrigue over how Surya goes about his business. He’s a new age cricketer, a bit of everything and yet nothing particularly stands out as a trait. To many, Surya exists as the phenomenon who pulled off a catch for the ages in the 2024 final. To some, he is the only Indian batter who could wrap his head around a lightning quick Perth pitch at the 2022 T20 World Cup to aggregate a strike rate of 170 against South Africa when the next best was 109 from Kohli.
He can be a middle-overs enforcer or an anchor, depending on the situation. And his willingness to reinvent himself, to learn and improve his game, has always been Surya’s greatest advantage.
As India captain he has been batting at No.3 or 4, which gives him immense flexibility to attack inside the Powerplay and consolidate when the field is spread out. The home series against England however painted a worrying picture as not once in five outings did Surya face even 10 balls. The dismissals too had a common thread, all caught, mostly hurried by pace or top-edged to the infield. India bat deep so his dismissals weren’t perturbing even though on a personal front it had raised some level of concern.
When asked about it ahead of IPL, Surya was remarkably relaxed. “I think the harder you work, the luckier you get,” he said. “If it has to come, it will come anytime. But I am actually a process-oriented man. I love to work hard in the nets. And if the runs have to follow, it will follow quickly. Someday or the other.”
It did, but not at an acceptable rate in the first IPL game where Yadav had to lead Mumbai Indians because Hardik Pandya was serving a ban. That innings, his strike rate was 111.54. In the next 15 games, Yadav’s strike rate hovered between 142 and 300.
To suggest captaincy probably pushed Yadav into playing a little more cautiously against England may be premature but not a farfetched theory. Rishabh Pant has gone down that road in the recent past in IPL, as have a few others before him. But Surya goes into the Asia Cup starting on September 9 with the advantage of a long break, giving him a clean slate to reset his batting. Which is crucial because how he sets the tone is also intrinsically connected to the way India want to bat in the build-up to next year’s T20 World Cup.
Gautam Gambhir has already set lofty standards, talking about getting ‘250-260 regularly’ earlier this year. With a word of caution thrown in as well, that in trying to achieve those scores you won’t be able to fault India if they are bundled out for 120-130.
There is undoubtedly an element of risk to this approach. Not every day would Abhishek Sharma fire at the top. Not every game would feature Jasprit Bumrah. Some pitches may negate the spinners, and on occasions India may not have the rub of the green. Which is why Yadav needs to project himself as the insurance against all these possibilities. Not with big individual scores, but with consistently quick 30s and 40s. For India to walk their high-risk, high-reward game talk, Yadav needs to hit the ground running at his liberated best.