Suryakumar is enduring a dismal IPL 2026 campaign with 195 runs to his name from 10 innings.
Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Suryakumar Yadav is having a difficult IPL 2026 season, scoring only 195 runs in 10 innings at a low average of 19.50, a sharp decline from his 717-run MVP performance in 2025.
Suryakumar stepped in to lead MI against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Monday (May 4) as regular skipper Hardik Pandya was unwell. Under his stand-in captaincy, the five-time champions registered a crucial six-wicket victory but Surya again struggled with the bat, scoring 12 runs off 7 balls.
Speaking on Sportstar's Insight Edge Podcast, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar attributed Suryakumar Yadav's struggles to declining fitness levels as he passed the age of 35, claiming that his physical condition is failing to support his, typically, aggressive batting style.
“I don't think he is as fit as he was 5 or 6 years back. I mean, he's older, but fitness-wise, I don't think he is. If you get on the wrong side of 30, then if you don't take care of your fitness too much, this game is so ruthless, it will start exposing you, because those things that you take for granted, seeing the ball, and hitting all these shots, they'll start, sort of, just find it more difficult to pull those shots off," Manjrekar said.
"I'm certain about one thing: his fitness is not what it should be. If I were this personal coach, I would only get him to get your lighter on his feet. stronger, and spend time there, rather than practising all the time because that's his game as well,” he added.
Manjrekar suggested that Suryakumar must adopt extreme fitness levels, similar to Virat Kohli, to maintain his ability to pull off unconventional, high-skill shots.
“Take a leaf out of Virat Kohli's book. Virat is not in his early 30s; he is, and he has had tough times in T20 cricket. But look at him this season. And what is the one difference in the fitness of Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Virat Kohli? I'm telling you, honestly, all the other things are there with him. Surya has that body of experience. Over the years, he knows how to get runs. He's seen success, so the mental side of things is there. Just get your body to support your intent. And I thought Rohit Sharma, as well, fell off and waned off because he didn't take care of his fitness as much as he should. He just made things a little more difficult,” Manjrekar stated.
“I see that with Surya as well. So, you're going to take your fitness levels to the next. I mean, go into extreme fitness, as Virat does. I've said this before as well. When Virat gets any success, the 1st thing he attributes it to is his physical fitness. For Surya, this is the only thing: okay, he can make his journey much simpler going forward if he just focuses on his physical factors. The mental side of things will take care of itself,” he remarked.
Suryakumar Yadav became India’s fourth World Cup-winning captain earlier this year, joining the likes of Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur, as the Men in Blue successfully defended their T20 World Cup title on home soil.
On a personal front, however, Suryakumar failed to live up to the expectations with bat in hand. He smashed 49-ball 84* in India’s campaign opener against the USA. However, his form faded again as the tournament progressed. The right-hander ended the event with 242 runs in 9 innings at an average of 30.25 and a strike rate of 136.72.
When asked if Surya is fit lead the Indian T20I team in coming months, Manjrekar replied: “That's a tricky question to answer. Now, what you're saying is IPL performances. We tend to think that he also had a bad run in the IPL last season or whatever, but it's more at the international level. I think the runs were evading, and he had a good IPL. And that loss of form at the international level has caught up in the IPL, even in the T20 World Cup, during that 1st inning against the USA. He didn't do anything much. It's clear to see that he's not the same player. Now, it is about selectors putting on their cricketers' hats, and this is where you need selectors, who are cricketers with a keen sense of potential and possibilities.”
“Is Surya capable of reproducing that magic again? And that question is something that they've got to ask themselves. We've seen for a while that he's not been able to, and he's not young. But how can you sort of not have your T20 World Cup-winning captain for the next T20 international that India plays? So I don't think anybody's going to take that tough decision. So the next series will decide whether he has a long-term future in T20 cricket. But he's clearly somebody who's just gone off the boil completely,” he concluded.