Suryakumar Yadav is set to be removed as captain of the India T20 team, and the powerful Apex Council may be informed of his status even before the squad for the UK tour is selected. Shreyas Iyer and Tilak Varma have emerged as the top contenders to succeed Surya as the leader of the Indian T20 side.
BCCI Secretary to Update Apex Council
It is expected that BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia will apprise the Apex Council of whether the national selection committee and head coach Gautam Gambhir are on the same page regarding Surya's removal. It is clear that if Surya is removed from captaincy, he will not remain in the side as a player after nearly 18 months of non-performance.
Selection Committee's Stance
A BCCI source aware of the developments told PTI, "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." The source added, "The selectors would be dropping him from the long list and had given an indication that Surya is now out of their scheme of things."
Contenders for Captaincy
Shreyas Iyer and Tilak Varma are the main contenders to become the next T20 captain. However, the choice of captaincy is not straightforward. As reported by PTI last week, there are a couple of options. With Surya being dropped, Shreyas, an IPL-winning skipper, looks an obvious choice. But the left-field choice could be Tilak, who many in the selection committee feel is an ideal candidate given his age. "Tilak has been made captain for A series in Sri Lanka to check out his captaincy credentials," the source said.
Gambhir's Preferences
It is understood that Gambhir has certain reservations about Shreyas, who was the captain of KKR in 2024, when the current India head coach was a mentor. At the time, Shreyas had publicly spoken about being underappreciated, something that didn't go unnoticed. It's no secret that Gambhir's choice is Sanju Samson, who had a wonderful knockout phase during the T20 World Cup, but the selectors aren't convinced that either the Kerala blaster or Ishan Kishan could be consistent for a prolonged period of time.
