Suryakumar Yadav reacts to India’s T20I captain change: Happy for Shreyas Iyer

India’s T20 World Cup captain Suryakumar Yadav feels no hard feelings against Shreyas Iyer, who replaced him as India’s T20I captain. Surya, who led the Indian T20I team to its first-ever title defense in the history of the T20 World Cup, responded to the captain’s insult by saying that he was just happy that the last three captains of the Indian T20I team had all come from Mumbai.

Speaking at the draw for the Mumbai T20 League match between Triumph Knights MNE and SoBo Mumbai Falcons, Suryakumar congratulated Shreyas on his inclusion in the T20I side as well as his promotion as captain.

“I am so happy for Shreyas that he has become the captain of the Indian T20I team. We have played all our cricket together here in Mumbai and it feels amazing that the last three Indian T20 captains have all come from Mumbai,” Suryakumar Yadav said on Saturday, hours after he was dropped from the Indian T20I squad.

India T20 Team Selection: How It Happened

The Indian selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, took the brutal decision to drop Suryakumar Yadav from the side in India’s very next T20I assignment after the T20 World Cup 2026. The call was made with the future in mind as India look to build towards the 2028 Olympics and the T20 World Cup to be held in the same year.

Suryakumar Yadav’s form has been an issue for the past one-and-a-half years and a tepid World T20 has meant the selectors have had to give priority to the numerous players waiting in the wings.

Shreyas Iyer was promoted to the T20I captaincy despite not having played a single T20I game since December 2023, when he was unceremoniously dropped from the Indian cricket set-up for allegedly not prioritizing domestic cricket.

Shreyas worked his way back, first by winning IPL 2024 with Kolkata Knight Riders and then by leading Punjab Kings to the final of the tournament the very next year. He has elevated his game to an extremely high level in the last two seasons, hitting both spin and pace and batting at 165 and above.

TEAM INDIA NEW LOOK T20I

Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma (vc), Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Varun Yashikaravani, V. Sohavory, Prince

SURYAKUMAR WANTED TO PLAY OLYMPICS

Suryakumar Yadav, who became the captain after the T20 World Cup 2024, has enjoyed a stellar position as India’s captain. Under him, India dominated bilateral T20I cricket, winning every series in which he was in charge. In the T20 World Cup, despite initially struggling on tough surfaces, India showed tremendous strength in their last three matches, defeating New Zealand in the final.

Asked what he wanted to achieve after winning the T20 World Cup, Suryakumar, sitting next to head coach Gautam Gambhir, said his next goal was to win an Olympic gold medal.

“My next target is the Olympic gold and the T20 World Cup which is also in that year,” said Suryakumar Yadav.

Now that dream seems unlikely with Shreyas Iyer promoted to captain and Tilak Varma promoted to vice-captain, both batsmen operating in the same role as Suryakumar.

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Issued by:

Kingshuk Kusari

Published on:

June 6, 2026 7:45 PM IST