Suryakumar has no plans to retire anytime soon, reveals how wife motivated him after T20I insult

For almost two months, Suryakumar Yadav did not know what would happen next. The Indian batsman spent 40-50 days at home after being removed as T20I captain and dropped out of the squad, grappling with the possibility that his Indian career had suddenly taken an unexpected turn. He was shocked, he admitted, and even questioned whether he should continue playing.

“Then I sat at home for 40 or 50 days doing nothing, completely shocked and thinking, ‘What should I do now? Should I play, shouldn’t I play, what should I do next?’ A lot was going through my mind,” said Suryakumar in an interview with former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra.

It was during this difficult period that his wife Devisha Shetty reminded him why he picked up the cricket bat.

“One day my wife said, ‘Just think about why you started playing this game 20 years ago, when you were 13 or 15 years old… Because you were mad at this game, you had a passion.’ I said, ‘Yes, definitely true.’ She said, ‘Then bring the passion back again’.”

The timing of the failure was particularly difficult to process. Suryakumar led India through a highly successful period in T20I cricket, with the team winning the 2025 Asia Cup and the 2026 T20 World Cup, while remaining unbeaten in the bilateral T20I series under his leadership. Still, he expected to stay at the helm longer.

However, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee decided to hand over the captain’s armband to Shreyas Iyer, leaving Suryakumar out of the T20I squad altogether. The 35-year-old has not played since leading India to victory in the T20 World Cup in March.

“I said I have a passion to play cricket, but what is the way forward? You can’t see anything in front of you, it’s foggy, nothing makes sense,” he said.

However, his wife asked him to look back rather than forward. She reminded him of what he had achieved in the previous five years: five World Cups, two ICC T20 Player of the Year awards, a No.1 T20I ranking and an iconic catch in the 2024 T20 World Cup final before his crowning moment as captain in 2026.

“People play for 10 years, 15 years, 20 or 25 years and they’re not going to achieve what you’ve achieved in the last five years,” she told him.

THE DISK IS RETURNING

It still took some time for the words to sink in. Suryakumar said his wife encouraged him to go back to the gym, play tennis ball and rubber ball cricket and spend time with friends. Gradually, the drive returned.

“It started two or three weeks ago. Looking at my daughter every day, I thought that now I have to play for her.”

Suryakumar is now training again and batting in full swing. He is also clear about where he wants to spend his remaining years: T20 cricket. The Mumbai Indians batsman will look to the upcoming domestic white-ball season to remind selectors of his worth.

“I’m 35 at the moment; after 38 or 39 you can rest, but whether I have 3 or 4 years left, I want to play with the same passion I’ve played with until today,” he said.

He doesn’t know what the road is before him. But after weeks of uncertainty, Suryakumar says he has found something he feared he had lost.

“The love is back, the drive is back, the focus, the discipline, everything is back and I’m on the right track.”

– The end

Published on:

30 Aug 2026 17:35 IST