A day after his sacking, Suryakumar Yadav shows he hasn’t given up just yet in a defiant show with the bat

The former India captain featured in the Mumbai T20 League and put Shreyas Iyer’s team to the sword.

Updated on: Jun 6, 2026, 22:36:31 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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There is life in the old dog yet! Suryakumar Yadav proved that just a day after losing his T20I captaincy and a place in the Indian team.

Suryakumar Yadav is not throwing in the towel! (ANI Pic Service)

On Saturday evening, Surya and Shreyas Iyer, the man who replaced him as India T20I captain on Friday, were facing each other in the Mumbai T20 league. Surya was playing for Triumph Knights while Iyer was representing SoBo Mumbai Falcons.

Also Read: Mr 360 Suryakumar Yadav, a victim of complacency or just poor batting?

Surya, it appears, was out there to make a point. He made 48 runs off just 24 balls, and some of the shots he played were simply breathtaking. The Surya of old was on display, to all intents and purposes. In the third-wicket 50-plus partnership with Nutan, he did the bulk of the scoring. He well and truly deserved a fifty; however, it wasn't to be.

Surya has shown great character, with his decision to play just hours after his international career came crashing down. On Friday, the BCCI announced that Iyer, winner of one IPL title with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024 and runner-up with Punjab Kings in 2025, was the new T20I captain for Team India. When India tour Ireland and England in June-July, he will be at the helm. He will be leading the team in the Asian Games later in the year too.

The ruthless call for sure!

The sacking of Surya surprised many. He was expected to be given one more chance, but chief selector Ajit Agarkar had other ideas. Almost three months ago, Surya had led the Indian team to their third T20 World Cup title.

However, if truth be told, SKY had been struggling with the bat long before that, but, since in 2024 he had been made captain with the 2026 T20 World Cup in mind, he was given one chance after another despite not having any real runs to show for. He may have still survived, had he done well in the Indian Premier League for Mumbai Indians, but he could only come up with 270 runs in 13 games at an average of 20.77 and a strike rate of 147.54.

Anyway, Surya's return to action just a day after the sacking shows he has not given up on his India aspirations just yet. If he keeps on scoring big runs this season in domestic cricket, he can certainly return to the national team as a player, if not as a captain.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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