Since he was appointed the new T20I captain of the Indian team, Suryakumar Yadav hasn’t put a foot wrong in the position, as he has brilliantly replaced the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, who put the curtains down in his career of the shortest format, having won the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the United States of America.
One of the superb qualities that Rohit injected into the team was an aggressive and free mindset, which could help the players express themselves at a natural outset. Suryakumar Yadav had an excellent time at the start of his T20I captaincy with a series win in Sri Lanka.
The record of the new captain has been phenomenal since he led in the series against Australia, four days at the end of their final defeat of the ODI World Cup 2023, as the Blue Brigade registered a 4-1 series victory, followed by a drawn series against South Africa.
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As per the normal rules and regulations, Hardik Pandya was supposed to be the new captain of the shortest format for the two-time champions but, the veteran all-rounder was overlooked as Suryakumar Yadav was made the captain of the T20I series, which they won with a 3-0 margin.
Zaheer Khan draws a similarity of captaincy between Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma
Suryakumar Yadav has brilliantly used the conditions and situations to use his resources during the game. Some of the bowling changes he made, or the use of different bowlers at various points of the game, made it a comfortable job altogether for the Indian side.
During a pre-match show on Cricbuzz, the former pacer of the Indian side, Zaheer Khan, felt that the Mumbai-born had perhaps drawn inspiration from the leadership skills of Rohit, as both captains had been tactically quite sound with their approach.
“If you look at Indian cricket at the moment, things are transitioning well from an outgoing skipper to the one taking charge. Suryakumar Yadav has spent a lot of time with Rohit Sharma not only in the Indian team setup but also in domestic cricket, which is very much evident in the way he leads the team. Like Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar is a very tactical captain.” The former fast bowler was dissected during a recent discussion.
The leadership burden hasn’t changed Sky at all in his batting, as he has 2461 runs in 72 T20Is at an average of over 42 and a strike rate of nearly 170 with the help of four centuries and 20 half-centuries at a best score of 117.
The way Suryakumar Yadav displayed confidence on the debutant Mayank Yadav and the comeback spinner, Varun Chakaravarthy, showed how brilliant he was he had been in showing confidence and belief in his players.
Zaheer also hailed that the new captain hasn’t looked to mirror the captaincy of Rohit and rather has gone with his style of captaincy, which has given confidence to the team management and the selectors.
“The good thing is that Suryakumar has his style of leading the team and India hasn’t lost a series under his captaincy, which will give confidence to the team management, selectors, and Surya himself.” The Mumbai fast bowler remarked.
India will face Bangladesh for the last two T20Is of the series in Delhi and Hyderabad before they get into the four-match T20I series in South Africa.