It’s the dawn of a new era for SKY. In a few hours from now, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma‘s successor, will make his debut as India’s full-time captain when the Men in Blue take on Sri Lanka in the first T20I in Dambulla. Suryakumar has captained India before in eight T20Is – including a T20I series win against Australia and a 1-1 draw against South Africa late last year, but in both of those instances, he was only stepping in for Hardik Pandya, who had captained India for the better part of the year but had failed to recover from the ankle injury he sustained in the World Cup.
Tonight promises to be different, and a day Surya will cherish for the rest of his life. It’s his first match as India’s official captain as he and the team management slowly look to build a squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup. There’s still time before the next big ICC T20 event comes to India but the process, as a certain MS Dhoni always stressed on, begins now, with Surya at the helm. He has an able ally with him in Gautam Gambhir, whose presence promises to sooth some nerves if any.
But given the long road that lies ahead, Surya has received some crucial advice from his former India coach. Ravi Shastri, who knows a thing or two about coaching and the art of managing players, wants SKY to understand his bowlers and their deliverables well. He has the cushion of experienced batters, but barring Jasprit Bumrah and to a certain extent Arshdeep Singh, Shastri feels Surya needs to pay close attention to his bowlers going forward.
“One thing that he (Suryakumar) will have to learn from his side, is what are the strengths of his bowlers and what are the limitations. I never say a bowler has a weakness, I say a limitation and then there are strengths. And then focus on the right things and set fields accordingly. I think that’s what he will have to learn,” Shastri said on the ICC Review Show.
Will captaincy affect Suryakumar Yadav’s batting?
The thing with captaincy is that often it forces a player to curb his natural instincts. Look no further than Dhoni. Despite being India’s most decorated captain, Dhoni, who started off as a big hitter of the ball, eventually took a more cautious approach. Will it do the same to Surya, one of the most destructive batters in the world? Shastri’s reaction is an affirmative no. Surya hails from a city known to adapt the ‘Khadoos’ mentality of batting but being a Mumbai cricketer also brings along the perks of street-smartness, which Shastri reckons will play a big role in Surya’s success.
“We know he is street smart… he is one of the best T20 players in the world at the moment. He is a match-winner on his own, walks into the team day in, day out in that format of the game on his own steam, so I think it’s not a bad idea at all. I think it’ll [captaincy style] be much like his personality, the way he plays the game. He’ll be thinking very quickly and the fact that he knows all these players, even the senior players, I think he’ll be in a great position to handle the team,” added Shastri.
