Suryakumar Yadav addressed questions on beating Hardik Pandya to India T20I captaincy role after Rohit Sharma retired following the World Cup win.
India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav finally ended his prolonged silence on BCCI’s decision to prefer him as the skipper over Hardik Pandya. On the eve of the first T20I against Sri Lanka, which will begin a new chapter in Indian cricket under new coach Gautam Gambhir and Surya, India’s T20I skipper said nothing will change between him and Hardik.
Hardik was the preferred choice to take over the reins from Rohit Sharma after the latter retired following India’s T20 World Cup win in the Americas. Hardik was India’s vice-captain in T20 World Cup and before that, he had led the Indian T20I side for nearly a year in Rohit’s absence.
But new coach Gambhir and the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee felt Surya was a better choice than Hardik because Surya had a higher chance of staying injury-free and remaining available for most matches.
Surya hoped Hardik would carry his T20 World Cup form into the Sri Lanka series as he continues to be an integral part of the team.
“Hardik’s role has always been the same. He is a very important player for the team. The way he performed in the World Cup, I hope he will continue to do the same,” Surya told reporters on Friday.
Saturday will be the first time Surya will captain a side featuring Hardik. The opposite has happened a lot in international cricket and the IPL for Mumbai Indians.
In the three practice sessions that India have had in Pallekele so far, Hardik and Surya have been in great mood.
‘Only engines has changed, bogies are same’: Surya on replacing Rohit
When asked about replacing Rohit as captain, Surya said nothing will change as far as the attacking approach of the India team is concerned.
“The same train will go ahead; only the engine has changed and the bogies remain unchanged,” Suryakumar said on the eve of the first of the three T20Is against Sri Lanka here. “Nothing changes; the brand of cricket remains the same. It (the captaincy role) doesn’t change anything. It has given me an added responsibility. It is good that now I can do a ‘walk the talk’,” he added.
For that, Suryakumar said he wanted to tread the path that Rohit had set during his captaincy stint. “What I have learnt from Rohit is that he was always a leader on the ground and off it,” he said. “He was not just a captain — there is a lot of difference between the two. He was a leader who stood in the middle of the group and showed people the way. How to play T20 cricket and how to win a tournament? That is what I have learnt from him,” he elaborated.
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Surya has been playing under Rohit for a long time. His career started to take a turn in the right direction when he moved to MI ahead of IP 2018.
“I got to learn a lot of things from different captains I played under and obviously, Rohit Sharma, I have been playing with him for the last six years. There is a lot of learnings taken from him and in my own style, we will take the ship forward,” he said.
Suryakumar hoped that younger players such as Riyan Parag and Rinku Singh would come good in the series against Sri Lanka.
“Three players have retired (and) it will be difficult to fill the shoes. But new players have obviously practiced a lot and played a lot,” he said. “They are already doing well when they play franchise cricket and they have also done very well in the matches they played for India. I have a lot of faith in them that they will do well.”
Suryakumar said he was a ‘changed man’ now, 10 years after he stepped down from Mumbai captaincy for being abusive towards his teammates on the field. “I think it is a complete swap. If you say 2014, it is almost 10 years now. In 10 years, a lot of things will change. You become a different person altogether. You get to learn a lot of things. I am also a completely changed man now,” he said. “In 2016, I got married. So, absolutely, you have to change after that as well. But yeah, things are completely different now,” he added.
India’s new head coach Gautam Gambhir had recently expressed his regret for not using Suryakumar’s potential while he they were together in the Kolkata Knight Riders, but the latter said there was enough to make a turnaround. “We can fulfil that potential together now,” he said with a smile. “Our bond has always been special. We have talked a lot. We both understand what we want to say just by our body language.
“Sometimes, even without expressing anything, we understand what each of us want to say. I am very excited for this journey. Let’s see what happens,” he said.
