Suryakumar Yadav’s T20I run may be over, but his captaincy record eclipses Dhoni, Rohit

Team India’s SKY breached the skies to achieve greatness but fell on the other side of things as age and form caught up with him. Suryakumar Yadav, the most successful Indian T20I captain, found no place in the squads picked for the away UK tour and the Asian Games just months after leading the Men in Blue to its record third world title. While he was the most-talked-about player and captain in March after helping India defend its T20 crown, the selectors decided to replace him with Shreyas Iyer three months later.

His time in T20Is might be up, but his legacy as a captain eclipses even the best, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni.

Moments after Rohit Sharma led the Indian Team to end its ICC trophy drought in 2024 in the Americas, with a thrilling win over South Africa in the final in Barbados, he decided to step aside from the format. His teammate and former captain, Virat Kohli, also followed the same path, leaving the selectors with the massive task of appointing a new leader and rebuilding the transition squad.

With not many options to choose from, the selectors handpicked India’s best T20I batter, Suryakumar Yadav, as the T20I captain.

The SKY era begins!

His appointment brought a sea of changes to the side, with specialists finding a place in the XI for the home and away tours. Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma became regulars, Ishan Kishan found his place back in the team, and Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya continued as mainstays. All began revolving around SKY and his leadership, with Team India benefiting the most.

Since he took over as a permanent captain, Suryakumar’s Indian team has transformed into an unbeatable unit, playing a brand of cricket that is beyond fearlessness. Under his leadership, India scored 200s for fun, even at the most challenging grounds, with its top order clobbering hundreds just like that.

The bowling improved by leaps and bounds, with Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah and the return of Varun Chakravarthy turning games on their heads. India's mystery spinner peaked in these two years, winning matches for India and also claiming the number one position in the ICC rankings for T20I bowlers.

The final frontier

Fast forward to the 2026 T20 World Cup, SKY maintained an unbeaten record as a captain in bilateral series and looked like the right man to lead India to another World Cup victory.Even though he failed to contribute enough with the bat at the showpiece event, his captaincy was top-notch, with the Men in Blue lifting the 2026 T20 WC trophy in Ahmedabad.

However, little did he know that it would be the final time he would don the blue jersey. Although he hasn’t retired yet, his chances of returning to the T20I setup after the selection panel’s ‘eye on the future’ look bleak. Even if he doesn’t, his legacy as a batter and captain surpasses even the most talked-about skippers in Indian Cricket history.

Dig into numbers

To understand how good he actually was as an Indian T20I captain, here are the numbers.