 "Suryakumar Yadav will lead Team India in the upcoming T20I series against Sri Lanka. AP")
Suryakumar Yadav was on Thursday named skipper of the India T20I team that will tour Sri Lanka for a three-match series starting in Pallekele next week. Hardik Pandya was expected to lead the side in the island nation but due to his recurring issues with fitness, the BCCI were forced to look elsewhere for India captaincy in the shortest format.
Following the announcement of SKY being made captain , a video shared by broadcasters Star Sports last year is doing the rounds on social media. The 33 year-old had led India to a 4-1 T20I series against Australia at home last year, and that was followed by a 1-1 drawn series against South Africa in South Africa.
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SKY had spoken on his captaincy mantra, explaining how spending time with each other off the field is also important. “I am really enjoying this new role, enjoying spending time with everybody and we all have played together a lot either in franchise cricket or in state cricket, so it’s not that difficult to understand their strengths and weaknesses. And off the field we also spend so much time so the rapport we have on the field become very good,” he says in the video.
“It’s important for me to keep things simple, I am a process-oriented man, I like to keep things simple and that’s what I try and tell everybody that try and keep things really simple, don’t try and be a different version of yourself,” adds the right-handed batter.
Shubman Gill has been named Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy for the series. Gill had recently lead a young India side to a 4-1 T20 series win over Zimbabwe in the African nation. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, pacers Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh return to the side after being given a break for the Zimbabwe series following India’s T20 World Cup win. Jasprit Bumrah, however, remains absent from both the T20 and ODI squads to face Sri Lanka.
The T20 series gets underway with the first match on 27 July. All the three T20Is will be played in Pallekele before the tour moves to Colombo for the three-match ODI series.