Pictures Courtesy : BCCI
Someone who hasn’t played a T20I since December 2023 is returning to lead India in the shortest format. The squad selection for the upcoming tours of Ire
land and England, and also the Asian Games in Japan, would take place in Mumbai on Saturday. But Shreyas Iyer becoming the new T20I captain at the expense of Suryakumar Yadav is all but finalised. Tilak Varma is likely to be Shreyas’s deputy, although Axar Patel was the team’s vice-captain at the T20 World Cup less than three months ago.
After leading India to the T20 World Cup triumph, Surya had spoken about his LA28 Olympics dream. As it has turned out, he is set to lose his place in the T20I side. Things can change fast in sport, but in Indian cricket, it’s been super rapid of late. Last year, Rohit Sharma was stripped of ODI captaincy on the heels of winning the Champions Trophy. That he was the Man of the Match in the final against New Zealand had cut no ice with the AjitAgarkar-led selection committee. In Surya’s case, although he hasn’t lost a single bilateral series as India’s T20l captain and won the World Cup, his elongated form slump made his position untenable.
The selectors and the team management – head coach Gautam Gambhir has no reservations over Shreyas becoming the new captain – want to build for the next T20I cycle that will also have the Olympics besides the next T20 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2028.
Surya played a match-winning knock in India’s T20 World Cup opener against the USA. It felt like he eventually had turned a corner. As it turned out, it was a false dawn. He finished the World Cup with 242 runs in nine innings at a strike-rate of 136.72. An underwhelming IPL followed, where he scored 270 runs in 13 innings at a strike-rate of 147.54.
Those who have covered Surya’s nets sessions over the last few months would attest that the former skipper left no stone unturned to regain his run-scoring mojo. He worked his socks off. But nothing worked.
The decision to remove him wasn’t straightforward. It is learnt that the selectors were initially reluctant to move on from the World Cup-winning captain so quickly. One big score, a match-winning effort, in the IPL probably would have saved him. Surya failed to deliver.
The decision to make a change was purely based on Surya’s form and nothing else, and once there was an agreement in this regard, it was important to choose his successor. Shubman Gill was dropped from the T20I set-up before the World Cup, and a successful IPL notwithstanding, where he scored more than 700 runs, he was never in the fray. The choice was between Shreyas and Tilak, and the former’s proven captaincy record in the IPL tilted the balance in his favour.
Besides leading Kolkata Knight Riders to the title, the Mumbai batsman has also led Delhi Daredevils and Punjab Kings to the IPL finals. And the extra burden hasn’t affected his game. He scored 498 runs, including an unbeaten hundred in the final game against Lucknow Super Giants, in the 2026 IPL at a strike-rate of 168.81. His time starts now.
Over to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and the teenager is going to be the youngest player since Sachin Tendulkar to get into the Indian team. After a tally of 776 runs at a strike-rate of 237.30 in the recently concluded IPL, it has become a sort of formality.
Will Rajat Patidar be picked for the series in Ireland and England? The Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s title-winning captain is likely to be in the squad for the Asian Games instead.
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