India T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav said that one of the main reasons for the team’s incredible success over the previous 15 months has been overcoming the fear of losing in knockout matches.
After winning the T20 World Cup in June 2024, India won the Champions Trophy in February in the ODI format and Suryakumar guided the team to their second Asia Cup victory in the T20 format last month.
India is benefiting from playing an attacking style of cricket, according to the powerful hitter.
“I feel in the last year and a half, when we started winning the championships, we started playing this game in a little different way. In knockout situations, not to think about fear of failure, just go out and do what we do best and put our best foot forward and not think about the result,” said Suryakumar at a ‘Skyscanner’ event on Thursday.
India hadn’t won an ICC tournament in almost a decade till the trophy in Barbados in June 2024. According to Suryakumar, a mental reset produced the intended outcomes.
“That’s the attitude, that’s the culture we created in the team environment. Cricket has been going on for a really long time, but since 2022, we thought, after we came back from Australia, after that T20 World Cup in Australia, we thought, we’ll have to do something different. If we have to win a championship, we’ll have to play in a different way,” said the India skipper.
Suryakumar also gave Rohit Sharma the credit he deserved for teaching him the tricks of leadership.
“I think it’s more of a brother’s bond which we share, we go a long way. I still remember when I made my first class debut for Bombay in 2010-2011. He was around in the domestic circuit and from there to the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.
“Then I left, went to KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders). But when I came back (to Mumbai Indians) in 2018, he was the captain. That’s when the journey started. I learned a lot of tricks of the trade. Learned all the leadership qualities and how he used to handle everyone on the field, off the field.
“And then when he became captain of India in T20 and ODIs, that’s when I could see the real Rohit Sharma with a lot of pressure,” said Suryakumar.
