The biggest talk in Indian cricket is about the captaincy of the T20I format. Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya are the two contenders for the post. Rohit Sharma retired from the shorter format after winning the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 for India. As a result, India need a new T20I captain, and the management, including new head coach Gautam Gambhir, is in talks.
Team India will tour Sri Lanka for three ODIs and three T20Is, and India need a T20I captain. It has been learned that Gambhir and the management want Suryakumar Yadav to become the captain, but Hardik was Rohit’s deputy for the last two years and was groomed as the next white-ball captain of India. But now, what happened? Everyone, including Rohit Sharma, wants Suryakumar Yadav to take the responsibility of the captaincy.
Why Gautam Gambhir and BCCI are favoring Suryakumar Yadav over Hardik Pandya for T20I Captaincy
The Indian selection committee will announce the squad for the Sri Lanka tour shortly, and it will come with some surprises for the fans. But the biggest will be for the T20I captaincy. Will it be Suryakumar Yadav or Hardik Pandya? After learning from some media handles, Suryakumar has an edge. But why? Hardik was the vice-captain for India in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and was one of the top performers.
Well, there can be a few notable reasons behind it. Firstly, the captaincy shift of Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2024. The franchise brought Hardik from Gujarat Titans and made him the captain, which backfired on them. There were some reports that senior MI players weren’t happy with this. That may be the reason why Rohit himself is in favour of Suryakumar.
This can be a wrong assumption, but as we have seen, when it comes to choosing a captain, it is always the vice-captain who gets promoted. Gambhir becoming head coach can be another reason. We all know the relationship between Gambhir and Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, and Suryakumar Yadav was part of KKR between 2014 and 2017, and he played under Gambhir and blossomed as a player.
Surya is very close to Gambhir, and it could be another reason that the new head coach wants him to be the captain as well. SKY hasn’t had much captaincy experience under his belt, while Hardik has done it in the IPL and at the international level as well. Only time will tell what will happen and who will replace Rohit Sharma.
Also Read: Major Points India need to address while selecting squad for Sri Lanka Tour
