India cricket team star Suryakumar Yadav has etched his name in the history books following his stellar performance in IND vs USA clash in the T20 World Cup 2026. At a time when batters kept walking in and out of the ground on the other end, the Indian captain held his nerves to stay unbeaten on 84 runs to power India to a face-saving 161-run total at the end of the 1st innings. By the virtue of his knock, SKY was adjudged the Player of the Match, which allowed him to go past Virat Kohli in an elusive list.
SKY overtakes Virat Kohli to create history
Suryakumar eaned his 17th Player of the Match (POTM) award, thanks to his 49-ball 84-run knock in India’s T20 World Cup 2026 opener against the USA. This meant he is now the Indian with the most POTM awards in T20Is, with 17 to his name. The previous record was held by Virat, who had 16 such awards to his name. SKY is also the third international player with most Player of the Match awards in T20Is to his name, trailing Malaysia’s Virandeep Singh (22 from 111 matches) and Zimbabwe’s Sikander Raza (19 from 137 matches).
| Player | Matches | Player of the Match awards |
| Suryakumar Yadav | 105 | 17 |
| Virat Kohli | 125 | 16 |
| Rohit Sharma | 159 | 14 |
| Axar Patel | 88 | 8 |
India begin their title defence with a 29-run win over the USA. While many expected some fireworks at the Wankhede Stadium and north of 300-run totals, it was anything but that. Suryakumar was the hero with a knock of his life as India’s batting stumbled to 77/6 in 12.4 overs. Abhishek Sharma and Shivam Dube scored a golden duck as Shadley van Schalkwyk (4/25) gave India a reality check with three wickets in the 6th over. India could manage only 161.
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