This is to all the cricket nerds of the future, assuming the lot hasn’t gone extinct. If you ever run out of trivia, circle back to the early 2020s and look out for Indian captains, particularly in T20s. It is near-certain that you will find an interesting nugget to satisfy your Twitter (currently known as X, not sure what it will be a few years down the line) followers.
In the last few years, India has gone through more T20 captains than the number of Dolos an average Indian pops during a viral fever season.
In fact, India has had more T20 skippers (11) in the last five years than the country has had Prime Ministers (10) in the last 40 years.
During this spell, we have also witnessed captains of various kinds – the stand-in ones, the one-for-the-future ones, the reward-for-a-long-career ones and of course, the permanent skippers.
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A key reason for such high turnover for the Indian T20I captaincy is down to the team’s decision not to prioritise the shorter format, particularly when it comes to bilateral series.
In the last five years, India has played 119 T20Is. Of these 119 games, the Indian superstar triumvirate – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah – has played together just 19 times. Only six of those came in a bilateral series, while the rest came in the two T20 World Cups.
The constant absence of these leading players has been exacerbated by a packed schedule. This has, at times, forced two distinct Indian teams to take part in multiple formats at the same time in different countries. One such example was the last Indian tour to Sri Lanka in 2021, in which Shikhar Dhawan led the side, while the Test team was preparing for the World Test Championship final.
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The game of passing the parcel, that is India’s T20 captainship, has now fallen in the hands of Suryakumar Yadav. He has been picked out to replace Rohit Sharma, who decided to call time on his T20I career after breaking an 11-year-old ICC trophy curse. The Mumbai batter’s stint will begin with a three-match series in Sri Lanka.
As you could have guessed, this is not Suryakumar’s first time being rewarded by the great Indian captaincy carousel. The right-handed batter had previously stood in as the skipper in seven games, five against Australia at home and two against South Africa away. To his credit, India won five of them, with him scoring 300 runs at a more-than-handy strike rate of 164.83.
“I have always enjoyed being a leader on the field even though I was not the captain. I have always learnt a lot of things from different captains. It’s a good feeling and a great responsibility,” said Suryakumar ahead of the Sri Lanka series.
Suryakumar’s selection to lead the Indian T20I side though wasn’t a straightforward one, despite him holding one of the most secure spots in the team. Many had expected Hardik Pandya, India’s vice-captain during the T20 World Cup win, to be the obvious choice.
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But Hardik’s fitness concerns proved to be his undoing as the incoming coach Gautam Gambhir went for the steadier option in Suryakumar.
“Hardik’s skills are difficult to find. [But] Fitness was a clear challenge, and we wanted someone who was likely to be available more often,” said Indian chief selector Ajit Agarkar at a press conference explaining the team selection.
With the 33-year-old Suryakumar an unlikely option for ODIs and Tests, it would be safe to assume that the revolving door of Indian T20I captaincy will not be in motion for a while.
Source Agencies
