Gautam Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav© Getty
Suryakumar Yadav has become only the third India captain to lift the T20 World Cup title, following in the footsteps of MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. However, his appointment as captain came as a bit of a surprise considering he wasn’t even the vice-captain of the team under Rohit. Many felt that current head coach Gautam Gambhir, under whom Suryakumar had been vice-captain at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), was the reason behind his elevation to India captaincy. But Suryakumar has now revealed that four other people – and not Gambhir – played a role in him taking over as T20I captain.
Suryakumar stated that former BCCI secretary Jay Shah, BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar, former head coach Rahul Dravid and former captain Rohit Sharma were involved in the decision-making to promote Suryakumar as captain.
“There was a time when Jay bhai, the BCCI secretary at that time, called me three or four days before the Sri Lanka series. He called me and told me that they were making me the captain of the T20 team going forward. Yes, he called me first,” Suryakumar told PTI.
“But I was pretty sure that it was all being planned by Rohit bhai and Ajit bhai at that time. Gautam bhai came in later. They, along with Rahul Sir – Rahul Dravid, the coach then – had discussed it with Jay bhai. Then they decided that I should lead India going forward,” he added.
Suryakumar has won 42 out of his 52 matches in charge of India’s T20I team, boasting a win percentage in excess of 80. As captain, he is yet to lose a single bilateral T20I series since taking over the role on a permanent basis.
Suryakumar, who is 35 now, is only eight wins behind Rohit in the list of most wins as India’s T20I captain.