SKY has fallen: Have Indian selectors sacrificed Suryakumar Yadav, the batter, for the captain?

India ended the year 2025 on a perfect note, winning the five-match Twenty20 series against South Africa 3-1. This series has acted as a perfect preparation for the Men in Blue as they begin their World Cup defence in February.

While the current world champions have put no foot wrong in the last one year to steamroll the opposition and another five matches against New Zealand to fine-tune their skills, India have one major concern. The form of skipper Suryakumar Yadav.

The Indian skipper, who topped the ICC Twenty20 rankings for two years from 2022-2023 and finished fourth in 2024, has slipped down to eighth position this year. But that doesn’t tell the true story.

The 35-year-old had managed only 429 runs in 18 matches at an average of 26.81, but his underperformance has gone unnoticed with India winning the Twenty20 World Cup on the back of stalwarts like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

But this year, Suryakumar, popularly known as SKY, saw his performance nosedive further, where he has averaged just 13.62 after scoring 218 in 19 T20I innings, his career's worst show.

While the bowlers are not giving him the same length to play his shots freely, SKY’s main reason for the downfall could be the captaincy. The batter, who has already been struggling for form, is not able to focus on his batting and his performance has plummeted further.

Indian selectors might have tried to ease that burden by trying to bring Shubman Gill into the Twenty20 set-up against South Africa and Australia, but the class batter could not find his groove in the shortest format and lost his place to Ishan Kishan. A good show by Gill must have boosted the selectors’ confidence and could have made Gill the captain.

But who knows, Suryakumar could have also faced the axe instead of Gill. However, they have gone ahead to retain Suryakumar as the skipper. A tough choice, but they could have still eased his burden and given Hardik Pandya the responsibility when Rohit Sharma announced his retirement, along with Kohli, after winning the World Cup in Barbados in 2024. 

In fact, SKY was surprisingly given the role when Hardik was the vice-captain to Rohit Sharma and had led India in his absence on numerous occasions.

One of the reasons for not giving Pandya the captaincy is due to his fitness concerns and to manage his workload better. For a player who has taken the rigours of the Indian Premier League and has played 20 matches during Gujarat Titans’ title-winning run, is it difficult to play a five-match series? A blunder that they are paying the price for now.

This selection committee has made several decisions under the garb of experimentation. One of them is pushing Sanju Samson in the middle order after breaking a successful opening partnership. At least they set the reset button just before the announcement of the World Cup team and restored the winning duo at the top. But now they have sacrificed Suryakumar, the ace batter, to be the captain.

“I am sure everyone goes through this phase in their respective careers. I will overcome it as well. I know what to do. I know where things are going wrong. I have got some time to work on it. We have the New Zealand series coming up, and then the World Cup. You will see Surya back,” he struck a confident note during the squad announcement on Saturday.

Surya, meanwhile, is leaving no stone unturned to return to his best, spending more time honing his skills and also watching his past performances. 

But still, the runs are eluding the batter, who could play his shots across 360 degrees. “Obviously, you go back and watch videos of your own innings when you batted really well, when you delivered and tried to carry the same things forward. It is a small hurdle, hard to spot right now, but I will get past.”

SKY, who is back at the No. 4 spot for India – a place that is ideally suited for his free strokeplay – will be playing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Mumbai to regain his confidence. It is just a matter of getting his confidence back, and he has limited time to achieve it.

The one-month-long World Cup in India and Sri Lanka doesn’t give him the freedom and the mental space once the tournament starts.

The one factor that works in his favour is that the team has world No. 1 Abhishek Sharma and No. 3 Tillak Varma to carry the load ahead of him, with finishers like Pandya and Rinku Singh to follow.

“A sportsman doesn’t always enjoy a good time. It’s a learning process. For me, it’s that learning curve. It’s been a bit up and down,” SKY said at an event in Ahmedabad on Monday.

Indian fans will be hoping that the downslide is over, as his position is crucial for Team India’s fortunes in the World Cup.