Suryakumar Yadav is leading the Indian men’s cricket team in the ongoing 2026 edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. The right-handed batter from Mumbai tops the list of Indian batters with the most runs
in the ongoing tournament (180 runs in five matches). Under his leadership, India won all four Group A matches but suffered a humiliating defeat by 76 runs in their first Super 8s match played against South Africa on Sunday. After India’s winning streak of 17 matches in ICC events ended at Narendra Modi Stadium, Surya faced a lot of criticism, and fans even called for his ouster from the team following the conclusion of the ongoing shortest format megaevent.
But former England skipper Michael Vaughan has warned India against parting ways with Surya. According to him, Surya is a genius, and India would be stupid to look beyond him after the T20 World Cup 2026.
“I would say India would be stupid to look beyond Sky after the T20 World Cup. I think he’s a genius,” Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.
The captain of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning team was asked if the 2026 T20 World Cup will be Babar Azam’s last short-format mega-event for Pakistan, and in reply, he said, “Yeah, Babar Azam, T20 cricket. I’m not too sure. It’s his strongest suit. I see Babar as a 50-over specialist and a Test match specialist.”
Is Tilak Varma’s form a concern for India?
In five matches of the T20 World Cup 2026 for India, Tilak Varma has failed to impress with his batting performances. Calls are growing for his exclusion from India’s playing XI for the must-win match against Zimbabwe in Chennai on Thursday. And according to Vaughan, he wants Tilak to bat with a bit higher strike rate.
“Is it a concern? He probably wants his strike rate to be a bit higher. But I think when you’re looking at a whole batting lineup, you’ve got to have variations. You’ve got to have consistent performances. And sometimes by being consistent, your strike rate is not as high as some others. But sometimes there’s a player that just strikes at 130-140, and he does the kind of foundation, the glue roll within the batting line-up,” Vaughan said.
During the Q/A session, Vaughan was also asked if Harry Brook is overrated. While Vaughan doesn’t believe that Brook is overrated, he agreed that Brook is yet to deliver for England in major events.
“Harry Brook’s not overrated. The one thing I’ll say about Harry Brook is that so far in his short career, he’s done it in what I call not showcase events. Really kind of big moments are the Ashes series, the India series, the ICC Champions Trophy and the World Cups. And so far, Harry Brook’s not delivered when it’s really mattered, when the pressure’s been on in terms of England lifting a trophy or getting close to lifting a really big trophy.”
