Suryakumar Yadav’s coach Ashok Aswalkar felt proud after the Mumbai batter was appointed as India’s T20I captain. SKY will take over the captaincy baton from Rohit Sharma, who retired from T20Is after leading India to glory in the World Cup. Interestingly, Hardik Pandya was expected to be India’s new T20I captain but SKY pipped him as the all-rounder has had a history of injury woes and workload management.

Yadav has been a consistent performer in T20Is and he will look to lead from the front. SKY has led India in seven T20Is, out of which the team won five in 2023.

Ashok believes Yadav learned a lot by rubbing shoulders with experienced players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja.

He told TOI, “I had messaged him (Suryakumar) in the afternoon saying that you would get a big message today, and in the evening, when we heard the news, I felt very proud…I feel very happy. Captaincy is a slightly different role. He played in the World Cup 2024 with great players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja. By playing with such great cricketers, we get to learn a lot.”

Yadav has scored 2340 runs in 68 T20Is at an impressive average of 43.33 and a blistering strike rate of 167.74 and he is the number one batter in T20I rankings.

The first T20I between India and Sri Lanka will be played in Pallekele on July 27.

T20I Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.

ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.