IND vs SL | Team India Players' Trust On Suryakumar Yadav Reason Behind Hardik Pandya's T20I Captaincy Snub: Report

IND vs SL: In a surprising move, the BCCI announced Thursday that Suryakumar Yadav will lead Team India in T20Is for the upcoming bilateral series against Sri Lanka, snubbing the main contender, Hardik Pandya. Ever since Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the shortest format after lifting the 2024 T20 World Cup title, Hardik Pandya was supposed to succeed him as the Indian captain. However, the BCCI decided otherwise and named Suryakumar Yadav as the next captain. Hardik Pandya was not even considered as the vice-captain.

Since the announcement, several media reports stated that the reason behind Hardik's captaincy snub was due to his fitness issues, but as per a report by the Indian Express, the favour went towards Suryakumar Yadav after BCCI took feedback from other players in the team.

According to the report, the players told BCCI that they trusted Suryakumar Yadav more than Hardik Pandya and were quite comfortable working with him. The selection meeting lasted for two days as it involved heated debates and contrasting opinions. The team management made certain calls to a few players and discussed with them their future plans.

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The BCCI selectors were highly impressed with Suryakumar Yadav's man-management skills, the report stated. After Ishan Kishan planned to leave the Indian team halfway through the series against South Africa last year, it was Suryakumar Yadav, who tried to persuade him to stay with the team. He also had a word with the fringe players in the series and told them to take advantage of the chances given to them. Another thought is that Yadav communicates just like Rohit and the players are comfortable in talking to him.

Meanwhile, Pandya, the vice-captain of the 2024 T20 World Cup winning team, was informed about this decision by the selectors and the new head coach, Gautam Gambhir. Pandya was also the vice-captain of the ODI World Cup squad last year but was ruled out due to an injury.

Pandya's recurrent injuries in recent times worked against his favour. He has played just 46 T20Is for India since January 1, 2022. And in the same duration, Suryakumar Yadav has missed just a few matches and that too because of a sports hernia injury. He led the series from the front in the 5-match T20I series against Australia last year and then a three-match T20I series against the Aiden Markram-led side in December.