Suryakumar Yadav Spared The Axe From T20 WC Squad Only Because He's Captain: Report

Captaincy may have been the only thing keeping Suryakumar Yadav inside India’s T20 World Cup 2026 plans.

Shubman Gill’s shock omission dominated headlines, but the bigger takeaway from the squad announcement was what it revealed about SKY’s own precarious position. Both batters have struggled — only one survived.

Gill, India’s Test and ODI captain, paid the price for a lukewarm return to T20Is. Across 15 innings, he scored 291 runs at a strike rate just over 137 — numbers deemed insufficient in a format that demands immediate impact.

Suryakumar’s record is even bleaker.

India’s T20I captain has managed just 218 runs in 19 innings this year at a strike rate of 123.2 — his worst stretch since breaking into international cricket. Yet, unlike Gill,

SKY stayed on the plane.

According to a PTI report, leadership — not form — tipped the scales.

“SKY, who by virtue of being the skipper, kept his place despite a horrific one-year run, while Gill suffered as his game didn’t seem as impactful as Abhishek Sharma’s,” the report stated.

The subtext is unmistakable: captaincy bought Suryakumar time, nothing more.

That buffer may be thin. The same report issued a clear warning — runs are non-negotiable in Gautam Gambhir’s setup.

“Anyone who knows Gambhir knows that for him, ‘winning is not everything but the only thing’. Today it was Gill, tomorrow it could be Suryakumar,” the report added.

With Gill dropped, the selectors reaffirmed faith in Sanju Samson, keeping the wicketkeeper-batter in the squad. Samson justified that call with a fluent 37 off 22 in the fifth T20I against South Africa.

The message from the selection table is blunt: In this Indian team, reputation doesn’t protect you — not even captaincy. For now, it merely delays the verdict.