No more goodbyes: Has Indian cricket finally learned to move on?

We are from the land of Vizzy. It’s worth remembering. A cricketer of average ability, he used his power and influence to captain India during the 1936 tour of England. His appointment depended entirely on his social maneuvering and deep pockets. He had issues with India’s first ever captain CK Nayudu, keeping him aside and even handing a Test cap to a bowler who had insulted Nayudu at the breakfast table. Vizzy’s captaincy lasted exactly one tour, but the culture he embodied – power, sentiment and influence over cold logic – took longer to leave Indian cricket.

Only now, nine decades later, can he truly leave.

The latest victim is Suryakumar Yadav. Or rather the newest symbol. The selectors have moved on from the T20I captain who won them the Asia Cup and successfully defended the T20 World Cup at home in Ahmedabad. He’s 35, his numbers have dropped significantly over the past two seasons, and a younger man is waiting for him. That’s the story on paper. But Indian cricket has never worked purely on paper, which is why this moment carries so much weight. Suryakumar Yadav led India’s successful defense of the 2026 T20 World Cup (PTI Photo)

The backlash was swift, as always. Aakash Chopra, one of the sharper voices in the commentary box, made the dissenting case clear.

“You can’t treat a World Cup-winning captain like you kill a housefly,” he said on his YouTube show.

“He won a trophy. That’s got to mean something. You ask him to leave instead of just dropping him. I feel like he should have gotten a few more runs.”

It’s a reasonable argument, and it comes from a reasonable place: the idea that great service deserves the right to a dignified farewell. Indian cricket has believed this for a long time, often to its own detriment.

PRECEDENTS

Consider the precedents. Sunil Gavaskar told Imran Khan during India’s 1986 tour of England that he intended to retire at the end of the series. Convincing him otherwise, Imran told him that Pakistan was coming to India and he wanted to face it one last time. Gavaskar eventually retired from Test cricket after the Pakistan series in 1987. That extra year, bestowed on the sentiment and charm of a farewell rivalry, coincidentally produced one of cricket’s most treasured milestones — 10,000 Test runs. But the point stands: Gavaskar chose when to go. The system accommodated him.

The case of Sachin Tendulkar was even more illustrative. The wait for his one hundred international hundred stretched over years and extended his ODI career far beyond its natural end. He has played 200 Tests. He played his final series at home in Mumbai to a standing ovation that lasted longer than some innings. He chose the door, the time and the music. Sachin Tendulkar had a crowd of fans in his farewell Test (Reuters File Photo)

MS Dhoni took it the furthest of all. In 2018, he was booed at Lord’s in an Indian shirt by a partisan crowd who lost patience. He last played in the World Cup in 2019 and then disappeared – no announcement, no retirement, no word. For over a year, the Indian dressing room has been holding its breath. Each sample interview returned to the same question. If he wanted to come back, the door would be left open. He knew it. The country knew it. He finally retired in August 2020, on his own terms, in a sentence posted on Instagram at seven in the evening.

This is how Indian cricket worked. Superstars were not managed; they were postponed.

SCRIPT TURN

Then came Gautam Gambhir as head coach and Ajit Agarkar as head selector and something changed.

Between them, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli form the greatest batting partnership in the history of Indian cricket. Both sounded positive about playing the 2025-27 Test cycle. Both returned for the Ranji Trophy to demonstrate intent ahead of the England series. Both retired. The message, delivered not with malice but with a clarity that Indian cricket has rarely managed, was unmistakable. A poor domestic season in 2024 and a difficult Border-Gavaskar Trophy told the selectors what they needed to know. Form, not heritage, was the currency now.

Their ODI future followed a similar script. Both Agarkar and Gambhir have said it publicly: runs and form will determine selection as India prepare for World Cup 2027. No disrespect. No grace and kindness.

So Suryakumar’s case is not an isolated decision. It is the most recent data point in the pattern. Suryakumar Yadav’s lack of form worked against him (PTI Photo)

The numbers that ended his captaincy are not flattering. In the year before his removal, he averaged 13.62 in T20Is with a strike rate of 130 – figures that, as someone in the press box recently pointed out, belong more to a lesser all-rounder than a man who spent the better part of two years at No.1 in the world. He averaged 26 the year before. In his last ten T20Is, he has scored only two fifties or more. IPL 2026 offered one final audition and he scored 270 runs in 13 matches for the Mumbai Indians side who finished ninth. There was speculation about a wrist injury. Suryakumar spoke during the IPL. He still insisted he wasn’t out of shape, just out of shape. It’s a distinction that clearly mattered to him. The scorecard told only one story to the selectors.

He won two major international trophies and compiled one of the best captaincy records in Indian T20I history. He was picked over Hardik Pandya when the selectors needed a successor to Rohit Sharma after the 2024 World Cup – a challenge that required nerve and conviction. His winning percentage as captain ended up north of 80 percent. Under his leadership, India won 42 out of 52 matches. He spoke of focusing on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where cricket is making its debut, as the next chapter. The selectors seem to have decided that the road goes through someone else.

They have a ready-made middle-order successor in Shreyas Iyer — a batsman who has upped his T20 game considerably over the last two years, whose leadership of Punjab Kings in IPL 2026 has drawn praise for his fearlessness and man-management. Rajat Patidar, the pillar of RCB’s title winning streak, is patiently waiting behind him. The pipeline is full. Voters have no reason to look back.

NO SUPERSTAR CULTURE?

What Gambhir and Agarkar have quietly devised, beyond the headline decision, is to destroy superstar culture before it can take root again. Shubman Gill arrived in the T20I lineup in 2025 with huge expectations. He was handed over to the vice-captain. To accommodate him, the selectors broke up a productive opening pair in Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma – a decision that drew considerable criticism.

When Gill failed to produce the goods, he was eliminated. Not released. Not rested. He fell. Projected all-format star left out of T20 World Cup squad. The voters actually recognized that there was a mistake and corrected it. The second act willingness to reverse a high-profile callit took as much courage as the first.

Agarkar is a rare chief selector: he has a voice, a stated position and an evident willingness to defend it. Gambhir wants this transition to be handled his way. Together, they have created something unknown in Indian cricket, a hierarchy in which the management of the team has more influence than the players within it.

The question that remains is whether this is a permanent cultural shift or just a phase. Indian cricket has a long memory and an even longer capacity for sentiment. The next generation of superstars, if they arrive on a sufficient scale, may yet tip the balance back. Rohit and Kohli were perhaps the last of the untouchables – the kind of names around which the entire managerial culture was organized.

For now, however, the door is not waiting.

Vizzy made his way in, leaving a trail of chaos in his wake. Gavaskar played one extra year because his opponent asked him to. Tendulkar played until the earth stopped crying. Dhoni left when he felt like it one summer evening in a social media post.

Suryakumar Yadav won the World Championship and defended it. He won the Asian Cup. A captain with intelligence and winning at a rate that would have done his predecessors proud. And then, without ceremony or long goodbyes, he was told that a new chapter had already begun.

This is not how this country used to work. Apparently so now.

– The end

Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

June 6, 2026 09:08 IST