SURYAKUMAR Yadav will go home with an unwanted record of getting dropped from the team after winning a World Cup. The dashing batter has been shunted out of the Twenty20 squads for the forthcoming tours to England and Ireland as the selectors took a ruthless call and replaced him with Shreyas Iyer as captain. The axe came after Yadav led the team to the Twenty20 World Cup title early this year. It is a bold decision by the BCCI but also a timely one to send a message that individual form matters too. For too long, India persisted with Suryakumar Yadav’s dry run in T20 internationals.

 

He had a lukewarm World T20 with only 242 runs in kitty and stretched the patchy form into the Indian Premier League (IPL) where the Mumbai Indians finished at the bottom of the table. Yadav’s average form was as much responsible for MI’s disastrous tournament as were the other factors. All this was factored in by the BCCI selectors as they chose practicality instead of being sentimental about dropping a World Cup winning captain. Then again, Yadav himself has to be blamed for this situation. He was given a considerably long rope by the BCCI for all the talent he possesses. He had been a worthy match-winner for India in white-ball cricket. With audacious strokeplay and crafty batting, Yadav was among those rare players who needed just a few hits to change complexion of a game. He did that with total ease for India and also his IPL franchises.

 

As captain too, Yadav was good in execution of plans and strategies. Under Rohit Sharma in the 2024 World Cup, Yadav was the man who turned the final in India’s favour with a sensational catch at the boundary line. However, his recent batting slump brought too much pressure on the Mumbai player. It ultimately started affecting his batting style and finally ended in a whimper. That Yadav was set to lose T20 captaincy was pretty clear due to his dodgy form. But the selectors took a step further by keeping him out of the team altogether. It was a call that most selectors do not dare to take but the forward-thinking adopted by the BCCI these days, at least in the T20 format, allowed them to look beyond the attacking batsman. But then, there were players knocking on the doors with consistent good performances. Iyer, who has replaced Yadav as captain, could not be kept out after the run he has had with the bat. Even as captain of Punjab Kings, Iyer showed promise by winning six matches on the trot.

 

Though the team fell by the wayside in the remaining games to miss out on a knock-out berth, Iyer had displayed great potential of being a good leader of men. The BCCI hardly had to think beyond Iyer as they handed him captaincy for the twin tours. What the Suryakumar Yadav saga tells is the BCCI’s readiness to take ruthless decisions. The selectors have waited enough to allow the batsman a second coming. It did not come and the natural step ahead was to look at a fresh talent from the vast pool of cricketers Indian cricket boasts of these days. It was not difficult to pitchfork young sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the hot seat. The message is clear: THERE ARE OPTIONS.