India's T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav is going through a lean patch in his career since he was appointed as Rohit Sharma's sucessor to lead the side in the shortest format of the game. Notably, the stylish batter who used to bat at number three under Rohit's captaincy has sacrificed his batting spot for the team's sake, and there were observations that his graph with the bat went down since he tinkered with his batting.
Suryakumar Yadav on his batting spot
Ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026, when asked about his chance of batting at No.3 where he got a lot of success, the skipper indicated that he would like to be flexible.
"I have batted at both positions for India. My stats at No. 4 are sightly better although they are good at No. 3 also. But then we are flexible with that," said Suryakumar Yadav ahead of the T20I series against New Zealand.
"We will see and if the situation demands that we have to send a right-hander (in case right hander Sanju Samson gets out), then, I will go in, otherwise Tilak (now injured) has been doing really well at number three."
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Suryakumar Yadav's form in 2025
After a tough spell at the end of 2024, Suryakumar Yadav found his touch again in the 2025 IPL and looked back to his fluent best. But that confidence didn’t last when he returned to international cricket. In the T20I matches that followed, he continued to struggle for runs. Throughout 2025, Suryakumar scored only 218 runs from 19 T20I innings, with a low average of 13.62 and a strike rate of 123.16. It was the first time in his career that his strike rate stayed below 150 over a full year.
Suryakumar Yadav's upcoming assignment
Suryakumar Yadav will now be seen leading India in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand which is India's last assignment before the T20 World Cup 2026.
India's T20 World Cup 2026 schedule
Defending champions India will start their T20 World Cup 2026 campaign against the United States on February 7 in Mumbai. After that the Men in Blue will face Namibia on February 12. The tournament's high-voltage clash between India and Pakistan will take place on February 15. India will face the Netherlands in their last Group Stage match on February 18.