- By Himanshu Badola
- Sun, 08 Feb 2026 10:19 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
IND vs USA, ICC T20 World Cup 2026: Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav scripted his name in the history books as he went past Virat Kohli's outstanding record after helping India beat the USA by 29 runs in match 3 of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. India kicked off their campaign in the best possible way, and Suryakumar led from the front with a memorable performance.
Suryakumar now holds the record for the most Player of the Match awards won for India in T20 Internationals. He played an incredible knock of 84 runs in just 49 balls with the help of 10 fours and four sixes on the day when the rest of the batting lineup completely failed. The senior batter won his 17th Player of the Match award in his 105th T20I match for India. The record was held by Virat Kohli, who won 16 PotM awards in 125 T20Is before his retirement. Rohit Sharma and Axar Patel are next in the list.
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While India struggled after being put into bat first, Suryakumar's effort helped them reach a challenging total of 161/9 in their 20 overs
Most POTM awards in T20Is for India
17 Suryakumar Yadav (105 T20Is)
16 Virat Kohli (125)
14 Rohit Sharma (159)
8 Axar Patel (88)
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"I knew definitely someday it was going to come," Suryakumar said of his innings while collecting the award. “Last whole year, I was trying to bat in such a way, hold the innings for the team, but it wasn’t happening. But then I left it alone after I played the last series of last year against South Africa. Packed my kit bag, spent a lot of time with family for two weeks. Then started in the new year, and when we went to Nagpur, it was a different feeling altogether."
The bowlers also produced a brilliant effort and restricted the USA to 132/8 on the back of a match-winning effort from Mohammed Siraj. Siraj was the pick of the bowlers, having taken three wickets for 29 runs in four overs, whereas Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel found a couple of scalps each.
"I always felt that there was a need for a batter to bat till the end," the skipper added on his plans after the collapse. “I never felt that it was a 180-190 wicket. I felt it was a 140 wicket. But then Gauti Bhai told me the same thing during the break after the 14 overs. He told me, just try and bat till the end, you can cover it any time. And also, the most important thing, I have played a lot of my cricket in Bombay, this wicket and also the maidans of Mumbai cricket. So I know how to bat on a similar kind of wicket… You had to understand that one batter had to bat till the end. I just kept counting who was about to bowl at that time and checked on how many balls were left, and I was just trying to play good shots and my shots," he added.
India will now play against Namibia on February 12 in New Delhi.