Suryakumar Yadav is reportedly set to be removed from his position as India's T20I captain despite leading the team to the T20 World Cup title earlier this year. While his captaincy skills have been praised by fans and experts, his batting performances have spiralled concerningly.
However, Virat Kohli's former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) teammate Mohammad Kaif came out in support of Suryakumar, pointing out that the right-handed batter had a great campaign in IPL 2025 and has done brilliantly
during his career in the shortest format. Kaif said that Suryakumar is at par with Kohli as a T20 batter.
The former India batter said that while Kohli has done way better than Suryakumar in T20 World Cups, if their overall T20 careers are compared, there won't be much of a difference.
"Suryakumar Yadav is not a new batter. He is a proven player. Just in the last IPL, he scored 700 runs. Not being in form is one thing. Even Kohli was out of form for two years, but that belief was there that once he gets the touch, he would score again," Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
"Suryakumar is on par with Kohli in T20s, he is not less. Don't compare in World Cups. I agree he has not scored in World Cups, but he is not a light player. Even a player like Kohli had a bad patch, but he got the backing. Every player has a bad time. You could drop him after a series or two, then I would not have had a problem. At least give the winning captain some respect," he added.
Kaif said that the timing for stripping Suryakumar of captaincy duties is wrong. He opined that the Mumbai Indians' batter could have been given one more series, and if he had failed to return to form, he could have been dropped. The cricketer-turned-expert feels that the new captain will feel the pressure as he would know that his predecessor was removed despite leading the team to the World Cup title.
"I feel the timing is wrong. You can remove Surya, but you should have given him at least one more series. If he did not score there, then you could say now we are moving on. We gave you a chance, but you are not able to get back to form, and now we are looking towards other players. But the one who becomes captain now will have different pressure that if this has happened to Surya after winning as well, what can happen to me? He should have gotten a few more chances, and then you could remove him," he said.
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