Suryakumar was recently stripped of the Indian T20I captaincy and dropped from the squad entirely.
The plan envisions Suryakumar taking on a captaincy role while ultimately reuniting with Gautam Gambhir, who Uthappa predicts will return to KKR in a coaching or mentoring capacity after the end of his India coaching contract.
Suryakumar was recently stripped of the Indian T20I captaincy and dropped from the squad entirely due to his extended lean patch with the bat.
The 35-year-old also struggled for runs in the IPL 2026 season, scoring 270 runs in 13 innings at a low average of 20.77 for the Mumbai Indians (MI). He managed to hit only two half-centuries as MI finished ninth on the 10-team points table.
Surya has been with MI since 2018, transforming into one of the world's premier T20 batters after being handed a stable, top-order role. His earlier stint at KKR (2014–2017) was largely defined by a lower-order finisher role under Gambhir’s captaincy.
“From Surya’s point of view, for all intensive purposes, he might go to KKR," Uthappa said on the CommBoxTV YouTube channel. “It rekindles the idea that once Gautam Gambhir finishes his stint with the Indian team, he probably goes back into KKR as a mentor or coach. And Surya fits into that as captain with Gambhir as the mentor again."
Gambhir successfully served as the mentor for the KKR during their triumphant IPL 2024 campaign. He was subsequently appointed as the head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team.
While Gambhir and Suryakumar built a highly successful partnership—culminating in India winning the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup—the selectors still chose to replace the underperforming captain with Shreyas Iyer.
“Surya will play until he is 40. Unless he is marred by terrible form and the midas touch is just over. But returning to the Indian side is going to be hard for Surya. He won’t get A cricket at his age. So he won’t get to play on the Australian wickets where the 2028 T20 World Cup will be played," Uthappa stated.
Shreyas will kick off his T20I captaincy stint with India’s upcoming two-match series in Ireland, starting June 26.