 "Suryakumar Yadav had not scored a fifty in the format since October 2024. Image: AFP")
January 23, 2026, Raipur. Match two of a five-game T20I series between India and New Zealand. The Black Caps, having been put into bat, blaze away at the start, fizzle out through the middle and then produce pyrotechnics at the end to finish with 208. It is a decent-looking score but given India’s batting might, and with the outfield soaked in dew, it feels a touch underwhelming.
That notion, though, is tested almost immediately. In seven legal balls, the visitors send back both India openers. One of them (Sanju Samson) has been inconsistent and is only finding his way back as India’s first-choice opener. But the other, aka Abhishek Sharma, has been tearing teams apart, and has been doing it regularly.
SKY struggles at first but keeps fighting
After 1.1 overs, India are under strife. A chase they were meant to ace is threatening to flag very early. And even though Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav come with previous international pedigree, they have not been in action and form, respectively.
But that is the beauty about sport. You could be out of touch and out of sync and yet, every day, there will be hope that things will change. That all the hard work put in behind the scenes, and all the chatter and white noise shut out, will yield something tangible. And across an hour and a half, that is just what happens for Suryakumar.
The first few balls reek of uncertainty. He pushes, he prods, he gets squared up, he gets beaten, and though his demeanour does not quite say so, he looks like a man burdened by his lack of runs. He tries biding his time. Perhaps knowing and respecting that he has been out of runs.
And then…something clicks.
A length ball on the stumps is dished out at the start of the sixth over by Matt Henry. The instinctive response, from a Suryakumar POV, may have been to whip it over square leg, or at least try to do so.
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View AllThis time, though, there is something different in store. A straight bat, showing off the maker’s name and an on-drive that would have made the purists proud. It is not a shot that usually makes Suryakumar highlight reels. But when he is at his very best, the on-drive is a prevalent part of his game. A comforting shot. Almost like that twin, garnished-with-chocolate-sauce scoop of ice cream after a tiring and mentally sapping day at work.
SKY finds his rhythm and takes the game away
After that, you could sense the Suryakumar of old returning. Bit by bit. Ball by ball. Over by over. And shot by shot. There were strokes all around the dial. The pick-up shot over short fine leg fetched him runs rather than accounting for him.
The fall-away upper cuts cleared the fielders behind point instead of finding them, and whenever Suryakumar decided to target a particular area, there was clarity. Clarity in what shape he needed to get into, how to position himself and how to let his hands do all the work.
That shone through in his off-side play. Especially as he drove and punched through extra cover, either by getting to the pitch of the ball or just by standing tall and playing on the rise. New Zealand were then forced to bowl where Suryakumar wanted them to, and no prizes for guessing that almost all of their bowlers travelled thereafter.
All great batters, irrespective of the format, are able to achieve that. And that is why it was a surprise that it took Suryakumar so long to break out of the funk. Prior to Friday, he had gone 23 T20I innings without a half century, with his previous fifty coming all the way back in October 2024 against Bangladesh in Hyderabad.
His returns in T20I cricket (or lack thereof) over the past year had, thus, been well-documented. Even if it felt an inexplicable anomaly, considering that he had been scoring heavily in the IPL during the same stretch. Not to mention that he remains one of the best to have ever played this format for India.
Some pointed towards the captaincy and the extra responsibility it brings. Some put it down to the inevitable trough top-level athletes go through. Some retained hope of a turnaround. Some were a little more scathing in saying that SKY may have reached his limit in the international game. But almost every Indian fan, irrespective of which side of the fence they sat on, sat uneasily, especially as the low scores racked up.
Well, that changed on Friday. Because Suryakumar did Suryakumar things. He may have played second fiddle to Kishan at the start but once he flexed his muscles, his stroke-play was a sight to behold. Like always.
Why this knock meant so much to SKY
Which kind of makes his display in Raipur an even bigger deal. Not just because a world-class batter returned to his old self, but also because Suryakumar, in his pomp, is still India’s best batter in the format. Someone who can take the game away from the opposition in the blink of an eye. Someone who can target different and unconventional areas, and someone who, when he plays well, ensures that the entire nation sleeps peacefully, knowing they have witnessed a batting clinic alternating between audacious, outrageous and downright improbable.
India, as they bid to become the first-ever side to defend a men’s T20 World Cup crown, will need each of those aforementioned aspects. More so because this felt like the final yet most pivotal piece of the jigsaw. And in terms of longevity, consistency (barring the recent blip), average and strike rate, there is Suryakumar Yadav, daylight and then the rest of the batting unit.
This is not deriding what India’s power packed batting complement can muster. Rather, it just illustrates how special Suryakumar is as a T20 batter, and how special he was before this dip in form.
As captain, Suryakumar has already emboldened this side. Urging them to play a brand of aggressive cricket, and empowering them even if things go wrong. And he can take that up a notch as a batter. Because for many of these players, Suryakumar still remains the beacon and the gold standard - the archetypal T20 batter who can literally do anything, do it at breakneck speed and keep adhering to the demands of the format, even if personal fortunes are dwindling.
Prior to Friday, many would have put that down as conjecture. As something wishful. Not anymore. Not after what Suryakumar accomplished in Raipur. Not after all this wait, and all this pressure has yielded something tangible.
And certainly not after a night when the whole of India slept peacefully, safe in the knowledge that their T20I skipper and still their most exciting batter, was back and close to his best.