Former India batter Mohammed Kaif advised the incumbent T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav not to ‘hide in the dugout’ in his attempt to overturn his form in the format.
Kaif’s remark came after the Mumbaikar
managed only 12 (11) while batting at number four in the third T20I against South Africa in Dharamshala on Sunday. That made it only 213 runs at a modest strike-rate of 125.29 and an average of 14.20 for him in 2025. No full-member nation’s captain has crossed 200 T20I runs in a calendar year with a worse batting average.
Kaif said Suryakumar should have taken the plunge and batted at number three in the comfortable 188-run chase, instead of sending Tilak Varma ahead of him.
“Questions are about his form,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel. “He has been a good player; hence, questions are about his form. He had a good opportunity to bat and stay not out, which could have been good for the remaining T20Is before the World Cup. One innings can transform a player into a different player. When Tilak Varma was sent at No.3, cameras were at Suryakumar Yadav,” he continued.
“When confidence is down, there are second thoughts, whether I should go out to bat or not. But you have to be brave. You can’t hide in the dugout if you want to make a comeback. You have to face that challenge to rise from that phase. Suryakumar Yadav has done that, but he had a good chance in the third T20I. When he did come out to bat, there were hardly runs to be scored. Even if he had remained not-out, he couldn’t have made more than 20 runs. If he batted at number three, there was a chance Surya could have made at least 40 runs,” Kaif added.
A constant change in the batting position has been a theme of Suryakumar’s year, with the skipper batted at number three ten times and eight times at number four. Even in the last T20I against South Africa, India sent all-rounder Axar Patel ahead of him.
On his part, Suryakumar rejected that he was ‘out of form’ at all after the match, citing how ‘beautifully’ he was batting in the nets and boasting confidence that match runs would follow soon.
