Suryakumar Yadav admitted he was shocked after he was left out of the T20 squad despite leading India to T20 World Cup 2026 glory. After a mundane run in IPL 2026 for Mumbai Indians, SKY was not picked for the UK tour, where India played two T20Is against Ireland and five against England.
Shreyas Iyer was appointed as the team’s new T20I skipper. Meanwhile, SKY’s form led to his ouster as he wasn’t batting at his absolute best in the last 18 months. Yadav scored 242 runs in nine matches of the T20 World Cup at an average of 30.25 and a strike rate of 136.72.
Furthermore, he could only manage 270 runs in 13 matches of IPL 2026. Yadav said he wants to make a comeback to the T20I format whereas he has almost given up on ODI cricket after he could not find success in the latter.
Suryakumar Yadav said on Aakash Chopra’s YouTube Channel, “I sat at home for 40-50 days. I was doing nothing, and I was completely shocked. I was thinking, what should I do now? Do I want to play or not? A lot was going on in my mind. One day, suddenly my wife said, ‘Just think about why you started playing this game 20 years ago? Because you were mad for this game. Then bring that passion back again.’”
SKY said he has always tried to smile whenever he has been put under pressure.
“Aise hi smile kiya tha maine jabhi mera naam nahi tha (I smiled like this when my name was not there). Whatever cricket I played throughout the two years, whenever I was in situations where there was pressure and things were not going my way, I have always smiled.”
The former Indian T20I skipper admitted that he didn’t expect to be dropped from the team.
“I also didn’t think this would happen. I was preparing to take this team forward for another two years; then the Olympics will come, then there will be another T20 World Cup, another challenge going forward. But at the same time, what you think and what others are thinking are two different things. If they thought that this is a better call going forward, they took that call. But I didn’t react,” he added.
After the T20I snub, Suryakumar Yadav scored 163 runs in five matches of the Mumbai T20 League 2026 at an average of 40.75 and a strike rate of 175.27.
