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Indian middle-order batter, Suryakumar Yadav pipped all-rounder Hardik Pandya to become India’s captain in the shortest format of the game. Suryakumar Yadav, who is India’s top-ranked batter in T20Is, succeeds Rohit Sharma, who retired from T20Is after India’s T20 World Cup 2024 triumph in Barbados last month. Although, it is not the first time Suryakumar will take the captaincy role, he even led the side in the T20I series against Australia and South Africa last year.
The 33-year-old, who was named the captain of the T20I team on Thursday, July 18 as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named 15-member squad for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka. Soon after his appointment as the T20I captain, an old of SKY surfaced where he spoke of his captaincy mantra. In conversation with Star Sports, Suryakumar revealed that he really enjoys it as they have spent a lot of time together.
On being asked how is enjoys captaincy and what is his mantra for success, Surya said, “I am really enjoying this new role, enjoying spending time with everybody and we all have played together a lot either in franchise cricket or in state cricket, so it’s not that difficult to understand their strengths and weaknesses. And off the field we also spend so much time so the rapport we have on field become very good.”
“It’s important for me to keep things simple, I am a process oriented man, I like to keep things simple and that’s what I try and tell everybody that try and keep things really simple, don’t try and be a different version of yourself,” he further added.
Watch Suryakumar Yadav reveal about his success mantra as captain
The 33-year-old Mumbai batter took India to a 4-1 series win against Australia and followed it with a 1-1 series draw against South Africa in the rainbow nation. He would look to emulate the result as he leads the team in a three-match T20I series, set to be played from July 27 till July 30 at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele, Sri Lanka.
India’s T20I squad for Sri Lanka series 2024
Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj.
