Suryakumar Yadav became the third Indian captain to win the T20 World Cup.
Following India's record-breaking third ICC Men's T20 World Cup victory, skipper Suryakumar Yadav discussed the importance of mental resilience, team understanding, and off-field training in developing a championship-winning culture, emphasizing that the most important thing is to be true to oneself.
Team India trounced New Zealand by 96 runs on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium, and Surya underlined the importance of failure in sports.
“It's really important to understand that you'll definitely fail more times than you succeed in sports. I mean, he must have seen it in his career. I saw it last year, 2025. For the whole year, I couldn't get a 50. It took me 400-plus days to get a 50 for India. But that's what I told the boys, the same thing. Ups and downs will definitely keep on coming in sport,” Surya said while addressing the media in the press conference.
For Surya, success comes not just from technical skill but also from character, discipline, and fostering trust within the team.
“You have to understand; you have to respect the game. You have to try to spend time with all the good people around you. That's more important. Be true to yourself. You can't cheat the man in the mirror when you get up in the morning, or you're going to sleep,” he added.
Surya also emphasized the value of developing confidence via interpersonal relationships and freedom of expression, as well as the significance of comprehending teammates' personalities, abilities, and shortcomings.
“So, those small, small things that you do off the field, I think when we come on the field, that actually gives you a lot of confidence; that gives them a lot of composure. Also, I feel you need to understand each character on the team. Everyone is different. They bring a different skill to the table. So, you need to speak to them and understand their temperaments. That is actually very important, and that's what we did throughout the last one and a half years, two years,” the skipper stated.
Surya stressed that players should retain the skills and mindset that brought them success at the state and franchise levels.
“Yes, the jersey color changes, bringing in a lot of emotion, the dry color, but at the same time, what has given them success, they shouldn't be running away from it,” he noted.
(IANS inputs)