Winning a World Cup as captain is usually a guarantee of job security. For Suryakumar Yadav, it lasted exactly three months.
The Decision
On June 6, chief selector Ajit Agarkar named Shreyas Iyer as India’s new T20I captain, dropping Suryakumar from the squad entirely for tours of Ireland, England and the Asian Games. Agarkar called it one of the hardest calls the panel had made, but pointed directly to form: Suryakumar managed just 270 runs in 13 IPL 2026 matches at an average of 20.77, with only 10 sixes all season, a sharp decline from 717 runs the year before.
The Numbers Behind the Call
- Did not score a single T20I fifty through all of 2025
- His T20I batting average dropped from 43.33 before taking the captaincy to 37.59 during it
- Led India in 52 T20Is, winning the 2026 Asia Cup and T20 World Cup without ever losing a bilateral series as captain
His Response
Suryakumar reacted with notable grace, praising successor Shreyas Iyer and framing the moment through past setbacks he had overcome. “I smiled after spotting that my name isn’t there,” he said on a podcast appearance, adding that he remained grateful for his run as captain.
What’s Next
His omission is one of the year’s defining selection stories, discussed further in our features on India’s 2026 selection controversies and players fighting to return to the national team.