Suryakumar Yadav may be removed as T20I captain?
CHENNAI: The murmurs have been going around for a while. Will Suryakumar Yadav be replaced as India’s T20I captain? Who will be his successor? Can a T20 World Cup-winning skipper — India have only three of them including MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Yadav — lose his job the next series after the title triumph? While some felt it could be harsh to remove a captain just after bringing glory to the country, others felt it is time to move forward. It did not help that Yadav had a poor run with the bat during the IPL and missed games due to wrist injury. There were informal discussion on his future when the squad for Afghanistan series was picked last month. The doubts and chatter onlNow, the end seems inevitable with multiple reports indicating that Yadav is set to be replaced as India’s T20I captain when the selectors meet to pick the squad for Ireland and England T20Is. Appointed as T20I captain ahead of Hardik Pandya, the then vice-captain, after Rohit’s T20I retirement post the T20 World Cup triumph, Yadav has an impeccable win record. In the two years he headed the team, India went on to win every single T20I series with the icing on the cake being the T20 World Cup earlier this year.
However, it is some ways understandable that Yadav was always a transitional captain despite him expressinwas indicator enough that Yadav’s future as India captain was time-limited. And the precedent was set when Rohit was replaced as ODI captain by Gill in the first series after the Champions Trophy triumph with eyes on the 2027 World Cup in South Africa. Now, with another two years to go for the next T20 WC and Olympics, the selectors and the BCCI seemed to have decided to move on from the 35-year-old Mumbai batter and build for the future.“I would look at whoever has got a better chance of playing two years ahead (in terms of captaincy). Shreyas Iyer can be one candidate. Even Ishan Kishan has been playing well. There is still a bit of time left to decide upon that. You can try out a couple of options, whoever fits the bill. Then you can take it forward. Not that you have to have somebody leading the side now straight away,” former national selector Devang Gandhi had told this daily earlier in May.
Either way, it will have to be someone who could lead India over the next couple of years, leading up to the T20 WC and