Suryakumar Yadav's T20I captaincy in jeopardy? Former India selector urges BCCI to make 'clear choice' ahead of Asia Cup 2025

Suryakumar Yadav’s T20I captaincy faces uncertainty as a former India selector calls on the BCCI to make a decisive choice before the Asia Cup 2025 squad announcement.

Suryakumar Yadav (Image Credit: SKY's X account)

After the end of the Test series in England, Shubman Gill's captaincy has been on everyone's mind. Now, there are former players and selectors who are urging the BCCI to make a clear decision regarding the T20I captaincy scenarios ahead of the upcoming Asia Cup 2025.

Gill showcased an outstanding batting performance in the England tour, scoring 754 runs in ten innings. He also slammed three centuries in the series and became the Player of the Series. While the series was important for India and Gill to prove his worth, it looks like T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav's job is in jeopardy.

Former India selector Devang Gandhi, in a conversation with the Times of India, mentioned that the selection committee should look at their options and 'be clear' about their choices ahead of the Asia Cup 2025. Gandhi praised Gill's aura and compared him to Virat Kohli.

"Gill has built an aura similar to what Virat had in 2017. Virat was groomed under MS Dhoni. Gill is also at his peak, like Virat was. He, too, has reacted to captaincy as well as Virat did. Ajit Agarkar has shown great foresight by appointing Gill as Test captain. There’s no reason why Gill shouldn’t be in a leadership role in T20. The messaging has to be clear about who takes over after Surya,” he said.

Moreover, Gandhi's point that split captaincy does not work in India might be true to some extent. No matter how much the selectors claim to have different captains for different formats to reduce workload, at the end of the day, performance is all that matters. Even though SKY is an excellent batter, his performance has gone down drastically.

Now that Gill is in excellent form and has also captained the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the IPL, the selectors might give him a chance in the T20Is as well. However, it's been more than a year since he has played for India in the format. Gill last played a T20I match back in July 2024.

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"Unlike other countries, split captaincy doesn’t work in India in the long run because you crave stability in the thought process. When you have a prolific all-format player leading in one format, it becomes difficult to not hand him the same responsibility in the other format. Gill has ticked all the boxes as a batter. And he has led in IPL, he added.

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