Suryakumar Yadav, once the undisputed king of T20I batting, has suddenly hit a rough patch. While his fellow batting stars are firing on all cylinders, Suryakumar’s runs have dried up, leaving him struggling to make an impact. The Indian T20I captain’s woes were compounded when he got out for a duck in the first T20I against England. Now, he got his second duck as T20I skipper in Pune, with India facing the heat via Saqib Mahmood. Ever since taking the captaincy from Rohit Sharma, SKY has been a shadow of the batter he is.
Captaincy putting huge toll on Suryakumar Yadav
It’s like the weight of captaincy is crushing Suryakumar Yadav’s batting form. Just look at the numbers – from 2022 to 2023, he was unstoppable, smashing 1897 runs at an average of 47+ and a strike rate of 173.8. That’s an insane 73% of his career runs scored in just that one period! But since he took over as India’s permanent captain in October last year, his form has plummeted. He’s managed just 164 runs at a mediocre average of 16.40 and a strike rate of 149.09. It’s like the pressure of leadership is suffocating his batting brilliance.
Certainly a cause of concern, Surya
There’s no denying that Team India, under Suryakumar, is playing high-risk cricket. Batters try to slog down the ground from ball one and the role of anchors have been pushed out of the book entirely. In this manner, you might never see a consistent run-getter in this format. This high-risk approach hasn’t really helped Suryakumar either. A few years ago, SKY used to take 5-8 balls to get into his groove. He would then launch attacks to leave the opposition bowling helpless. In this reward-wicket approach, Suryakumar is bound to fail multiple times but he has been on a torrid run of late. Even at the ICC T20 Men’s World Cup, Suryakumar averaged less than 29 and operated at a SR of 135.37.
Most T20I runs for India since Suryakumar Yadav was made permanent captain
| Player | Inns | Runs | Ave | SR | 100 | 50 | 0 | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ssanju Samson | 11 | 401 | 40.10 | 182.27 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 28 |
| Tilak Varma | 8 | 389 | 97.25 | 171.36 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 26 |
| Abhishek Sharma | 11 | 276 | 25.09 | 182.78 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 19 |
| Hardik Pandya | 10 | 227 | 37.83 | 135.92 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Suryakumar Yadav | 10 | 164 | 16.40 | 149.09 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
Most runs as India’s T20I captain
| Player | Inns | Runs | Ave | SR | 100 | 50 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rohit Sharma | 62 | 1905 | 34.01 | 149.76 | 3 | 13 | 6 |
| Virat Kohli | 46 | 1570 | 47.57 | 140.55 | 0 | 13 | 3 |
| MS Dhoni | 62 | 1112 | 37.06 | 122.60 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Suryakumar Yadav | 20 | 556 | 27.80 | 164.01 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
Suryakumar Yadav since becoming India’s permanent T20I captain
| Runs | 4s | 6s | SR | Dismissal | Opposition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | 8 | 2 | 223.07 | lbw | v Sri Lanka |
| 26 | 4 | 1 | 216.66 | caught | v Sri Lanka |
| 8 | 1 | 0 | 88.88 | caught | v Sri Lanka |
| 29 | 2 | 3 | 207.14 | caught | v Bangladesh |
| 8 | 1 | 0 | 80 | caught | v Bangladesh |
| 75 | 8 | 5 | 214.28 | caught | v Bangladesh |
| 21 | 2 | 1 | 123.52 | caught | v South Africa |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 44.44 | lbw | v South Africa |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 25 | caught | v South Africa |
| DNB | – | – | – | – | v South Africa |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | caught | v England |
| 12 | 3 | 0 | 171.42 | bowled | v England |
| 16 | 1 | 1 | 200.00 | caught | v England |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | caught | v England |
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