Former Indian selector Sridharan Sharath has opined that it was a bold move to back Suryakumar Yadav ahead of Hardik Pandya as India’s T20I captain. Pandya was the favorite to take over as India’s new skipper after the 2024 T20 World Cup.
However, the previous selection panel under Ajit Agarkar backed SKY as Pandya has always had injury woes and thus the selectors wanted to manage his workload with guile.
The move turned out to be a successful one as Suryakumar Yadav led India to glory in the 2026 T20 World Cup.
“The team was not short on leaders. You had Rohit, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja. Suryakumar is a great character and a good team man. We thought he would seamlessly take over from Rohit. And he did a terrific job, and didn’t lose a single T20 series. Hardik was also a leader,” Sharath told the Indian Express.
“The credit should go to Ajit for making the right call. He took that bold decision. When we pick a team, we have to name a captain,” he added further.
Interestingly, SKY was dropped from India’s T20I squad after the World Cup as the selectors decided to back Shreyas Iyer as the new captain.
Iyer had a tough start to his captaincy tenure as India suffered six losses on the UK tour, two against Ireland and four against England. However, India was able to bounce back strongly against Zimbabwe, Afghanistan. Team India also won the gold medal in the Asian Games.
India is currently leading 2-0 against New Zealand in the five-match T20I series.
