It took 11 years and 31 days for Suryakumar Yadav to don the blue jersey finally. And it was worth the wait. A first-ball six against Jofra Archer against England on March 14, 2021, in Ahmedabad created ripples. In those days, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi or Abhishek Sharma did not make their names for hitting the first ball for a six in a T20I match. But Suryakumar’s nonchalant shot, which later became popular as ‘supla shot’, was the perfect beginning, a suryoday. His story is of a delayed dawn, a blindingly brilliant noon and a sudden, quiet dusk, as he is removed from India’s T20I captaincy, and also from the squad for the IND vs ENG series in July, just two months after he lifted the T20 World Cup 2026, only the third Indian captain to do so.
The Accidental Captain, who took over from Rohit Sharma, hardly stepped a foot wrong. He had a winning percentage of 84% in 52 matches, better than Rohit Sharma (80.65% in 62 games). But the suryast is here. He is out as the captain and perhaps has played his last match in India jersey. He is sent to the history books of Indian cricket. Surya has been replaced by his Mumbai teammate Shreyas Iyer, who was not even in the T20 World Cup squad.
InsideSport · Career Arc
Suryoday to Suryast
The rise and fall of Suryakumar Yadav
SURYODAY
2021
Debut at 30. First ball, first six.
PEAK
2022–23
World No.1. Mr 360. 1,897 runs.
TWILIGHT
2024–25
Captaincy. Form gone. SR 123.
SURYAST
2026
WC win then axed. 113 T20Is.
Source: InsideSport Research
Suryoday
Born to Ashok Kumar Yadav and Swapna Yadav in Mumbai in 1990, the sun refused to rise for Suryakumar Yadav for quite a while. He had already spent 11 years as a professional cricketer, plying his trade for Mumbai in the domestic circuit. He played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians for eight seasons. Yet, the selectors refused to take a look. He was termed too old for international cricket. But he refused to give up.
Surya has often credited his wife, Devisha Shetty, for his rebirth as a cricketer. And rightly so, things started changing for good. He had three excellent seasons for Mumbai Indians in 2018, 2019 and 2020 to force his India selection. And the dawn was finally here.
Suryakumar Yadav made his India debut at 30 years, 181 days of age, one of the oldest. But it took four more days to show the world what Team India were missing in the shortest format, the intent. After he did not get to bat in his debut match, Virat Kohli gave up his place at No.3 for Surya. And what a start it was. He hit Jofra Archer for a six on a short ball that was fast and coming in. But Surya took his one leg off the ground and pulled that for a six over fine-leg. The Suryoday had arrived. He was fearless, something India needed badly in that format. ODI and even a Test debut followed, as selectors wanted him in all formats.
Mr 360 and World No.1
With the long-awaited debut done, nothing stopped Suryakumar Yadav. The floodgates had opened, and as a midday sun beams down on a summer day, Surya was going at it against all bowlers, all over the ground. And the way he was commanding the bowlers, smashing them in every direction, he was given the moniker of Mr 360 of India. AB de Villiers of South Africa, the original Mr 360, approved of it.
After facing just 626 deliveries in T20Is, he became the World No.1 T20I batter on November 2, 2022. That time, he had a strike rate of 177.47. No one from India was even close to his destructive power. He held on to that World No.1 spot for 20 months, dominating every delivery that came his way. He won back-to-back ICC T20I Cricketer of the Year awards in 2022 and 2023 to cement his legacy as the most destructive and most dependable T20I batter on the planet.
InsideSport · Career Stats
Suryakumar Yadav — Year by Year
Runs · Average · Strike Rate (T20I)
CAREER
3,272 runs
SR 162.95 | Avg 36.36
Source: InsideSport Research
World Cup 2024 triumph
With the disappointments of the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups still lingering, India needed to reinvent themselves. He arrived in the T20 World Cup 2024 as India’s most dependable batter in the middle-order. On sluggish pitches of the USA and Caribbean islands where orthodox batters struggled, he manipulated the field and swept fast bowlers for boundaries. His cameos were momentum-shifting, as he finished as India’s second-highest run-getter in the tournament to end India’s ICC trophy drought. His catch of David Miller was also match-defining. In three years since his debut, he had become the World No.1 batter and a world champion.
Accidental Captaincy
That T20 World Cup triumph brought a seismic shift in Indian cricket. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja bid their goodbyes to T20Is. With Shreyas Iyer also dropped from the side and Hardik Pandya struggling for fitness, selectors leaned on Suryakumar Yadav as India’s next T20I captain. But he was never the first choice. He was India’s accidental captain, who would go on to win another T20 World Cup for India.
While Hardik Pandya was the natural successor to Rohit Sharma after he guided Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in their debut season, that joy did not last very long. Hardik could only lead India in 16 T20Is. With injuries sidelining him since the World Cup 2023, and Rishabh Pant recovering from a near-fatal car crash, the BCCI turned to Suryakumar Yadav, who had the world at his feet.
2nd T20 World Cup title
With Gautam Gambhir by his side as the new head coach, Suryakumar Yadav did not have to look back. India were dominant T20 side, at home and away. Under Surya's captaincy, India never lost a bilateral series. In fact, that unbeaten record is still continuing.
As the captain, Surya won the series in South Africa and Australia. He also won the Asia Cup 2025. With 42 wins in 52 completed matches, Surya has the best winning percentage as the captain at 84%.
With a dominant Asia Cup 2025 triumph, he had to repeat history and defeat history. The T20 World Cup 2026 was at home, and he had to win it. And he did. He marshalled his troops, navigated selection challenges and backed the eventual T20 World Cup hero, Sanju Samson. India defended their T20 WC title, and Surya had his second.
There were controversies during his tenure as well. He refused to shake hands with his Pakistani counterpart, Salman Ali Agha, at the Asia Cup months after Operation Sindoor. Surya also refused to take the trophy from ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also Pakistan's interior minister. And as SKY ends his captaincy stint, he will not have the trophy. It's still locked at the ACC office in Dubai.
Twilight
Every sun rises, and it must eventually set. But unlike the real sun, Surya’s dusk came abruptly. Even as India were winning series after series, matches after matches, the pressure of captaincy on SKY was getting exposed. The batter who tormented bowlers looked entirely bereft of confidence. His trademark scoops felt forced, and his timing had deserted him. The burden of leadership had suffocated the artist.
The batter, who was hitting bowlers for fun, began the final phase of his career, and even a T20 WC triumph could not save him. India’s success masked Surya’s twilight, and with the IPL 2026, the sun set. The Suryast was here.
The signs were there in 2024 as he lost that World No.1 spot. His strike rate was taking a nosedive, and runs were becoming hard to come by. The man who hit 2 centuries and 6 half-centuries in 2023 had only four half-centuries in 2024. The strike rate dipped further to 151.59.
The 2025 downfall
But the IPL 2025 was a silver lining, and it was his best with 717 runs at 167.91. There was hope that it would help him get his form back. But that form did not transition to international cricket.
In 2025, he failed to hit even a single half-century. His batting average tanked to 13.63 after playing 19 innings, and his strike rate to 123.16, the lowest of his career. Surya, who destroyed bowlers’ confidence, had lost it himself. To be fair to Surya, he improved his performance in 2026 with three half-centuries against New Zealand in the IND vs NZ T20I series. He followed that up with a 49-ball 84 against the USA in India's T20 WC opener. His strike rate also went up to 161.33. But then the struggles returned. He could score any fifty in the entire T20 WC campaign after the USA match.
The Decline
The Numbers Behind the Fall
Runs, Average & Strike Rate — SKY in T20Is (2021–2025)
PEAK SR (2022)
187.44
Best-ever strike rate
NADIR SR (2025)
123.16
Career-low strike rate
PEAK RUNS (2022)
1,164
Best-ever run tally
NADIR AVG (2025)
13.63
Career-low average
Source: InsideSport Research
Suryast
Like IPL 2025, IPL 2026 gave him another opportunity to redeem himself and save his captaincy and the Team India spot. But Surya did not have the luxury of time at 35 years of age, and the form deserted him. To make things worse, a nagging wrist injury troubled him throughout the IPL 2026. Yet, IPL 2026 could have saved his career. But it became the final nail in the coffin. Suryakumar Yadav ended the season with 270 runs at an average of 20.76 and just two half-centuries in 14 innings.
With a new T20 World Cup cycle set to begin and an Olympics gold medal to win, the BCCI made the tough choice. They removed Suryakumar Yadav as the captain of India’s T20I team and dropped him from the squad altogether, just two months after he lifted the T20 WC trophy in Ahmedabad, where his career began. Given his age, it's unlikely that selectors will look back at him unless he pulls off a miracle. But if it's the end of SKY, he finishes as India's third-highest run-scorer in T20Is with 3272 runs in 107 innings, including 4 centuries and 25 fifties.
InsideSport · Career Timeline
Suryakumar Yadav — The Journey
From debut to departure — key milestones
Source: InsideSport Research
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