Suryakumar Yadav emerges as dark horse for India's T20I captaincy

Premier batsman Suryakumar Yadav has emerged as the dark horse to become Team Indias new T20I captain till the 2026 World Cup and might pip top contender Hardik Pandya who was assigned as the vicecaptain in the T20 World Cup 2024Hardik Pandya made himself available for the T20I series against Sri Lanka but it is learnt that Suryakumar Yadav is being preferred as the new captain for the Indian team according to new head coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman Ajit AgarkarSuryakumar has captained the Men in Blue in eight T20I matches against Australia and South AfricaIt is learnt that both Gambhir and Agarkar spoke to Pandya about this change of plan earlier this evening and explained to him that a longterm option was being finalised to ensure stabilityThe captaincy slot is empty after Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game after the T20 World Cup 2024 triumphAlso ReadSo many emotions Hardik Pandya thanks fans for roadshow in VadodaraPandya one of the heroes of that victory will take a break during the threematch ODI series against the island nation due to personal reasons The T20Is against Sri Lanka will run from July 27 to 30 in Pallekele followed by the ODIs from August 2 to 7 in ColomboThe squad for the series is expected to be announced in the next couple of days Hardik Pandya was Indias T2O vicecaptain under Rohit Sharma He is completely fit and available for the threematch T20I series and was supposed to lead the side but there is a very strong feeling that SKY would be the potential leader not only for the Sri Lanka series but till the 2026 World Cup a senior BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymityHardiks break from ODIs is for very personal reasons He doesnt have any fitness issue as is being suggested in the media the official saidThe 33yearold Suryakumar is believed to be one of the most popular players in the Indian dressing room It was under Gambhirs captaincy at the Kolkata Knight Riders that he made a name for himself as a T20 player and got nicknamed SKY by the then skipperHardik Pandya was seen as an obvious choice as captain after Rohits retirement but many factors came into play His performance as Mumbai Indians captain was underwhelming and the selectors are in no mood to assign him the captaincy taskThe selectors wont mind seeing him play Vijay Hazare Trophy this season to get some 50over practice About the ODI series against Sri Lanka the BCCI official confirmed that Hardik Pandya has asked for a leave and has communicated the same to Rohit Sharma The Indian skipper himself is on a break from this seriesWith this KL Rahul and Shubman Gill are the contenders for the leadership role in the ODIsEarlier BCCI secretary Jay Shah made it clear that even sevenstar cricketers must feature in domestic cricket when they are not on national duty But exceptions will be made for the likes of Rohit Virat Kohli and pace spearhead Jasprit BumrahThe BCCI would however want all the other Test specialists to play at least one if not a couple of Duleep Trophy games in August as a precursor to the Tests against Bangladesh and New ZealandThis time there is no zonal selection committee for the Duleep Trophy Only the national selection committee will pick Duleep teams All Test team contenders will be picked For Rohit Virat and Bumrah it will be their choice if they want to play or not the source addedWith PTI Inputs