Suryakumar Yadav named India's new T20I captain

Suryakumar Yadav has been named India’s T20I captain for the three-match series in Sri Lanka, starting on July 27. Surprisingly, Shubman Gill has been named his deputy. Hardik Pandya, who was Rohit Sharma’s deputy in the 2024 T20 World Cup, is also part of the squad.

India will be without Rohit, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, who announced their retirement from T20Is after winning the 2024 T20WC. 

Jasprit Bumrah has been rested for the entire tour, while Kuldeep Yadav has been rested for the T20I series. Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj, who were all rested for the Zimbabwe tour, are also back in the squad.

Apart from Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi and Khaleel Ahmed have also been retained from the squad that travelled to Zimbabwe. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma and Abhishek Sharma, who did well in Zimbabwe, have been left out. 

Also read - Gill named Rohit’s deputy; Parag, Rana earn maiden ODI call-ups

Pandya was India’s vice-captain in T20 cricket for a while, following his successful stint as Gujarat Titans’ skipper at the Indian Premier League for two seasons. Besides playing as captain over the last three years in IPL, he also led India in three ODIs and 16 T20Is. It was recently reported that Pandya's fitness issues could work against him.

Meanwhile, SKY has led India in seven T20Is. However, in non-international T20s, Surya’s captaincy experience is far less than that of Pandya - 17 matches as compared to Pandya’s 45-match experience.

SKY led Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the 2019 and 2021 seasons with a win percentage of 60%. He also led Mumbai Indians in one game against Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2023 season.

Surya captained India to a 4-1 win over Australia right after the 50-over World Cup last year. The opportunity came after Pandya injured his ankle midway through the World Cup and was out until the start of IPL 2024. After Australia, Surya led India in a three-match T20I series in South Africa, which was drawn 1-1. 

SKY has been India’s most prolific batter in the format ever since his debut in 2021. No other Indian batter has scored more runs than the Mumbaikar since his T20 debut (2,340 runs at an average of 43.3). The 33-year-old also has four hundreds in this period, the most by any batter worldwide. 

Both SKY and Pandya skipped the five T20Is in Zimbabwe after the T20 World Cup win and it was Gill who led India to a 4-1 series victory. Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel, Jitesh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar and Tushar Deshpande are the other omissions from the Zimbabwe squad. 

The three T20Is will be played at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on July 27, 28 and 30. This will be Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment as India’s head coach.

India's T20I squad - Suryakumar Yadav (c), Ꮪhubman 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.

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