New Delhi: With India gearing up to embark on a new chapter in T20 cricket after winning the World Cup in June, much expectation surrounds Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy in the forthcoming three-match series against Sri Lanka at Pallekele, which gets underway this Saturday.
R Sridhar, the former fielding coach for India, saw Suryakumar’s debut in Twenty20 international cricket in 2021. He is optimistic about the batsman’s ability to lead by example because of his cool head and collected nature.
“Surya has matured a lot from what I know of him from the earlier days when I was at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), where he used to come as a young athlete who was very aggressive and upbeat. But now, if you look closely, you will see he’s much more mature. He’s got a much more mellowed head on his shoulders, and he’s an astute thinker of the game.”
“I mean, he might not have led many matches over franchise cricket, or even for India – he’s led about eight games. I remember doing commentary in one of the India-Australia series, where he did a tremendous job. He also did a fabulous job in South Africa in the very short rain-curtailed series which he captained.
“Mind you, captaincy is not only about leading the team on the field. Captaincy is all about keeping your players in good space, even off the field, having those right conversations with them, and making sure that each and every player, who’s not just only in the squad but also outside the squad, on the fringe of making it to the eleven, they’re also in good space, and they’re also well taken care of.”
“So captaincy brings a lot more onto the table for Surya. It is going to be challenging initially, but I think Surya is someone who’ll take to it like fish to water,” says Sridhar in an exclusive conversation with IANS, facilitated by Sony Sports Network.
When Suryakumar was named Mumbai’s captain for the 2014–15 domestic cricket season, it was his first experience leading the team. However, it was a lacklustre period, and rumours about his irascible persona leading to indiscipline meant Suryakumar missed out on the Mumbai leadership position.
Mumbai restored Suryakumar as captain in 2019 after the calm and collected man turned a new page in his life, especially when it came to obtaining that India cap. From 2019 to 2021, he would captain Mumbai in 16 Twenty20 matches for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Sridhar thinks Suryakumar has what it takes to lead India as captain, but he needs to concentrate on picking the best playing eleven and communicating well.
“He’s got all the wherewithal to be a successful captain. But now that the captaincy is a full-time thing, with that comes more pressure because his communication has to be more spot-on. He needs to know what combination he needs. Obviously, he needs to gel with the new coach, Gautam Gambhir, who is also a no-nonsense person.”
According to Sridhar, serving as vice-captain to Gambhir at the Kolkata Knight Riders benefited Suryakumar, as playing under Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on the national side. “The fact that Surya knows Gautam Gambhir very well from his days in KKR, before 2017 and 2018, that should hold him in good stead.”
“The fact that he’s played a lot of cricket under Rohit, and to an extent, under Virat, should have been a good learning for him. It should have been a good internship for him, watching them, observing them, and learning how they go about captaincy.
The India-Sri Lanka match-ups would generally be low-key, but a sense of intrigue is in the air with both teams having new captains and coaches for the T20I series. “That’s what makes this series very exciting, I guess because it’s the beginning of a new chapter in Indian cricket. We must say this because, especially in the T20 format, not just the coach is new, the captain is (also) new.
“We’re not going to have Kohli, Rohit and Jadeja anymore in this particular format. So, it opens up the opportunity for many of our intern youngsters to take the legacy forward and go ahead in the next T20 World Cup (which) in India (in 2026).
“So they have a good two years to kind of gel and set a platform, play a certain brand of cricket, and have a certain philosophy with which they will play this particular format. That is what makes this series very interesting because this is where the foundation will be laid for that philosophy and vision,” concluded Sridhar.
-IANS
