The all-powerful Apex Council may be notified of Suryakumar Yadav’s impending removal as captain of the India T20 team before the team for the UK tour is chosen. The leading candidates to replace Surya as captain of the Indian T20 team are Shreyas Iyer and Tilak Varma.
It is anticipated that BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia will inform the Apex Council as to whether head coach Gautam Gambhir and the national selection committee are in agreement over Surya’s dismissal. After almost 18 months of poor form, it is obvious that Surya will not stay on the team as a player if he is stripped of his captaincy.
“Surya is set to be removed from captaincy. The selectors wanted to wait till the end of IPL to see whether he can get back to form. Since he looked completely out of form and not just out of runs… a tough call needs to be taken,” PTI quoted a BCCI source aware of the developments as saying on Wednesday.
“The selectors would be dropping him from long list and had given an indication that Surya is now out of their scheme of things. Shreyas Iyer and Tilak Varma are contenders to become next T20 captain.”
But selecting a captain isn’t an easy decision. There are a few options, as was mentioned last week. Shreyas, an IPL-winning captain, appears to be a clear choice after Surya was dropped. However, Tilak, who many on the selection committee believe is a perfect candidate considering his age, might be the left-field pick.
“Tilak has been made captain for A series in Sri Lanka to check out his captaincy credentials.”
It is understood that Gambhir has some apprehensions about Shreyas, who captained KKR in 2024 when the current India head coach was the franchise’s mentor. Shreyas had expressed in public at the time that he felt underappreciated, which was taken seriously.
Sanju Samson, who had a fantastic knockout phase during the T20 World Cup, is undoubtedly Gambhir’s preference, but the selectors aren’t sure that either Ishan Kishan or the Kerala batter could be reliable for an extended length of time.
