India captain Suryakumar Yadav will be looking to end his long wait for a half-century in T20Is in the upcoming clash against New Zealand on January 23. He had looked to be in good touch in the first T20I of the five-match series, but eventually got dismissed for 32 runs after hitting four boundaries and a six. Regardless of the dismissal, he did form a key stand of 99 runs alongside Abhishek Sharma and helped the Men in Blue in posting a humongous total of 238/7 in 20 overs.
The second T20I will see Suryakumar have a chance of overtaking KL Rahul, who is just six runs ahead of him on the list of Indians with the most runs against New Zealand in the format. He had surpassed Virat Kohli on the same list with his 32-run knock in the previous match and he currently stands third behind Rohit Sharma and Rahul.
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Indians with the most runs against New Zealand in T20Is -
1. Rohit Sharma - 511 runs
2. KL Rahul - 322 runs
3. Suryakumar Yadav - 316 runs
4. Virat Kohli - 311 runs
5. Shreyas Iyer - 225 runs
Suryakumar's struggles in T20Is
Meanwhile, Suryakumar has been going through a rough patch when it comes to T20Is. The 35-year-old hasn't recorded a fifty in the format for well over a year now. His last 50+ score came against Bangladesh back in October, 2024. He had a forgettable 2025 and wasn't able to play a big knock in any of the 21 T20Is that the Men in Blue played during the year.
Suryakumar hopes to improve ahead of T20 WC
Though Suryakumar looked to be in good touch against New Zealand and had even hit a few boundaries, he eventually got dismissed by Mitchell Santner. It remains to be seen if he will finally be able to end his drought and regsieter a 50+ score in the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand. India will be hoping for the batter to put his batting woes to rest especially with the 2026 T20 World Cup being right around the corner.