India captain Suryakumar Yadav’s difficult year with the bat ended on a familiar note, another failure, another long road back and the same unanswered questions. The Indian skipper finished 2025 without a single T20I fifty, his long drought continuing as he cut a visibly dejected figure during the fifth and final T20I against South Africa in Ahmedabad.
Suryakumar’s stay at the crease was short and restless. Bound by George Lindea’s accuracy, he limped to 5 off 6 balls, struggling for both timing and intent. Suryakumar looked to break free at first sight of Corbin Bosch’s pace and instead found the South African seamer hitting a hard length and forcing a mistimed strike that rolled gently to mid-off. India slump to 115 for 3 at 12.1. and the captain crawled away with drooping shoulders.
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The dismissal encapsulated a season that has steadily eroded the aura of one of T20 cricket’s most feared batsmen. Suryakumar has now endured a barren run that spanned nearly 14 months and over 25 games, with his last T20I half-century coming in October 2024. In that period, confidence has waned, fluency has deserted him and the numbers have become increasingly stark.
Among 22 T20Is in 2025, Suryakumar averages just 14 in a strike of 125. In the ongoing series against South Africa, he managed just 34 runs from three matches at an average of 8.5. Overall that year he scored 218 runs from 19 innings at an average of 13.62 and a strike rate of 123.16. This is in stark contrast to his career figures of 35.29 at a strike rate of 163.23 over 93 innings.
To find such meager numbers, we have to go back almost a decade, to the stage when Suryakumar’s international game was still taking shape. Now, as the captain and mainstay of India’s T20 middle order, his struggles carry much more weight. The T20 World Cup is less than two months away and the focus on the skipper has only intensified.
So far, Suryakumar is holding his own, helped in part by his leadership role. But as 2025 draws to a close without a single T20I fifty, the questions around form, confidence and timing are getting louder and harder to ignore.
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Issued by:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
December 19, 2025
