Shamik Chakrabarty, Mumbai
Subhayan Chakraborty, Mullanpur
Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, will have a major say in picking India’s new T20I captain, as Suryakumar Yadav’s position appears to have become untenable, it is learnt.
A discussion (online) between the BCCI brass, selection committee and the team management is scheduled on Thursday to finalise the captaincy issue, although the announcement might come later this week, when the squads for the two T20Is in Ireland in June followed by the five-match T20I series in England in July will be picked.
Surya is set to be the fall guy despite being fresh from winning the T20 World Cup two-and-a-half months ago. The selectors are willing to build for the next T20I cycle that has the next World Cup in 2028 and the LA28 Olympics, where cricket is making its return. It is in sync with the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee’s decision to remove Rohit Sharma from the ODI captaincy despite winning the Champions Trophy last year. They appointed Shubman Gill with an eye on the 2027 (50-over) World Cup.
Eventually, Surya’s elongated form slump is going to be his bugbear. He scored 242 runs in nine innings at the T20 World Cup, and then had an even worse IPL, where he made 270 runs in 13 innings at an average of 20.76.
It is learnt that Shreyas Iyer and Tilak Varma are in the running to replace Surya, while Ishan Kishan is considered to be a dark horse.