Suryakumar Yadav became India’s fourth World Cup-winning captain on March 8, joining the likes of Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur, after the Men in Blue outclassed New Zealand by 96 runs in the final of the T20 World Cup 2026 at Ahmedabad.
Days after the historic triumph, Suryakumar expressed his desire to play Test cricket and ODIs while also admitting that T20 format remains his forte.
Ever since his India debut in 2021, Surya has played 113 T20Is so far, amassing 3272 runs at an average of 36.35 and a remarkable strike rate of 162.94, including four hundreds and 25 fifties. He also won the ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year award in 2022 and 2023.
However, the 35-year-old is yet to leave a mark in the longer formats. He has represented India in only one Test and 37 ODIs so far.
Suryakumar’s ODI average of 25.76 suggests that he hasn’t done justice to his exceptional talent. On the other hand, he managed to score eight runs in one Test innings against Australia in 2023 before being sidelined.
"...what is written in your life, you get that only. I started with red-ball cricket itself, played Ranji Trophy for 10-12 years. I played a lot of red-ball cricket in Bombay because if you grow up in Bombay, you start with red ball itself, so everything is around red ball," Surya said in an exclusive podcast interview with PTI.
"But gradually, when we started playing white ball cricket, the inclination shifted a bit towards that. And after that, I came to this format (T20). I also tried a lot in One-Day cricket to play well in it, but nothing happened there.
"T20 mein jaisa chal raha tha, usme apna haath set ho gaya hai, aisa bol sakte hain" (The way T20 was working out for me, I had become good at it; you can say that)," he added.
When asked if he would he want to play Test cricket given an opportunity, Surya replied: "I would love to, because, as I mentioned, I played red ball cricket from 2010-11 to 2020. So, 10 years is a long time to play red ball, and I was in love with that format. But yeah, obviously, given an opportunity, who wouldn't want to play Test?"
After India’s heartbreaking defeat to Australia in the 2023 World Cup final, Suryakumar Yadav was dropped from the ODI setup. Even though the right-hander was handed T20I captaincy last year, he hasn't received an ODI recall to the national squad.
"I feel that as much as I have experienced ODI cricket closely and I have seen it, it is a format where you have to bat in three different ways. Sometimes if you go in early, if wickets fall quickly, then you have to bat like Test cricket.
"Then you have to bat with a good strike rate like a One Day and then later at the end of the innings, you have to bat like (you do in) T20 format. So, that is one format that I never understood. I tried my best to play it. But then it's a challenging format," Surya said.
With the growing popularity of T20 leagues and T20Is, clouds are hovering over the future of ODI cricket. Many feel that the 50-over format is time-consuming and want the ICC to completely abolish it.
However, Suryakumar feels the ODI format also has its charm. "...when I was with the team for the 2023 ODI World Cup and I played, then that vibe, the whole atmosphere of that format, the build-up going into the final. That was completely different than what we played in 2026 and 2024 T20 World Cup.
"So, it's charm is different, ODI cricket also has a different charm, T20 has a different one," he explained.
(With PTI Inputs)
