India's new T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav will throw himself into another battle with the Aussies as India take on Matthew Wade-led Australia in the five-T20I series starting November 23 in Visakhapatnam. Suryakumar is India's 12th T20I captain and on the eve of the clash, he conveyed his message to the second-string squad which features the likes of Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, and others.
"I met the squad in the afternoon today. I told them lets be selfless when you go on to the field. I am a guy who doesn't think about personal milestones. I have told them to keep the team first," Surya said in the pre-match press conference.
"Keeping the (2024) T20 World Cup in mind, all the games we are going to play are very important. I want us to be fearless."
Surya was asked who would be the designated wicketkeeper in the first T20I of the series. The newly appointed captain played his cards close to the chest.
"Ishan has been doing well, we wanted to keep continuity. He has been doing really well for us, including the Asia Cup and World Cup, batting in different positions. Both of them are front runners. We will take a call tonight," the 33-year-old said with a laugh.
On being asked about India’s heartbreaking loss in Ahmedabad, the Mumbai-born batter had a mature answer as he said, "It is difficult it will take time, it can't be that you wake up next morning and you forget everything what happened. It was a long tournament. We would have loved to win it.”
"But as you get up in the morning the sun rises again, there is light at the end of the tunnel. You have to move on. It is a fresh team (T20 squad), really looking forward to the challenge."
As Surya is trying to move on from the loss like everyone else, he said that the support from fans and families has been a great help.
"Obviously, a little disappointing but when you look back at the journey it was a great campaign. All of India and our families were proud about the way everyone displayed their talent on the ground.
"We played a positive brand of cricket throughout the tournament. We can be very proud of that," said the unorthodox batter.
He lauded skipper Rohit Sharma for leading the team with a fearless approach and wants to replicate it in the T20Is as well.
"He (Rohit) has set the example. It was a completely different Rohtit Sharma, he walked the talk. What we talked about in team meetings he did the same thing in the ground. We are very proud of him, he led by example and hopefully we will replicate that (in the T20s)," he said.
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