Suryakumar Yadav’s childhood coach Ashok Aswalkar was ecstatic after the announcement of the former as India’s new T20I captain for the upcoming three-match series against Sri Lanka. The position fell vacant when Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from T20I cricket following their win in the T20 World Cup.
Shubman Gill had originally been named to captain a relatively inexperienced team for the five T20Is against Zimbabwe. Now, a different leader will lead the Indian side for the upcoming T20I matches.
Aswalkar shared his excitement over Suryakumar’s success, saying, “I had messaged him in the afternoon saying that you would get a big message today, and in the evening, when we heard the news, I felt very proud.I feel very happy. Captaincy is a slightly different role. He played in the World Cup 2024 with great players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja. By playing with such great cricketers, we get to learn a lot.”
Suryakumar has captained the Indian team before. He led them to a 4-1 T20I series win against Australia last year and then to a 1-1 series draw against South Africa this year.
Gill has been named Suryakumar’s deputy for the T20I series. Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who could have been a captaincy candidate, is in the squad but won’t have any leadership role.
The T20I series will start on July 27 from Pallekele and three ODIs would commence on August 2 in Colombo.
T20I Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj.
ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.
