India’s new T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav wants to feature for India in all three formats. Surya is eyeing a comeback to India’s red-ball side after missing out on the longest format for more than a year. The Mumbai batter has featured in just a solitary test for India.
Not originally included in a largely young Mumbai squad for the pre-season Buchi Babu Invitational tournament in Tamil Nadu, Suryakumar has informed the Mumbai selectors of his availability for the second half of the first-class competition that is set to run until the end of August. He will play under Sarfaraz Khan after pleading with the selectors to keep the current team’s captain. Suryakumar most likely will play in Mumbai’s August 27–28 game in Salem versus Jammu and Kashmir.
Surya has recently taken over as India’s T20I captain and led his side to a 3-0 win over Sri Lanka in an exciting series. He was, however, excluded from India’s ODI squad, with the national selector Ajit Agarkar clearly stating that Surya wasn’t a part of their ODI scheme of things and is being preferred as a T20I specialist.
“I want to play for India in all three formats,” Suryakumar was quoted as saying by the Times of India. “Playing in Buchi Babu will give me good practice for the red-ball tournaments this season.”
India will play Bangladesh after a month’s break, which gives Surya a good space to feature in domestic red-ball games and create an opening for himself in the Indian setup. The Buchi Babu tournament will be followed by the season-opening Duleep Trophy in Anantapur, which will be contested by four teams picked by the national selectors.
Suryakumar’s most recent first-class appearance came in last season’s Duleep Trophy in July 2023. Overall, in 82 first-class matches, he has scored 5628 runs and averages 43.62 with 29 fifties and 14 hundreds.
