Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath questioned selectors after Suryakumar Yadav was left out of India’s T20I squad for the series against Ireland and England. Badrinath admitted that SKY’s omission as India’s T20I captain was justifiable despite winning the T20 World Cup recently, but expressed surprise that the batter was also dropped from the squad.
SKY had a tough run in the last 18 months as he wasn’t in the best of form. The Mumbai batter scored 270 runs in 13 matches of IPL 2026 at an average of 20.77 and a strike rate of 147.54.
Furthermore, barring scoring a fine knock of 84 runs against the USA in the T20 World Cup opener, SKY could not do much of notice with the bat.
Badrinath said on his YouTube Channel, “It’s definitely the end of the road for Suryakumar Yadav. We won’t see him in international cricket anymore. His winning percentage as a T20I captain is extremely high. Yet, these selectors have easily thrown him out. The same thing happened to Rohit Sharma after winning the Champions Trophy. There is a certain ruthlessness in the current team management.”
“I agree with the decision to appoint Shreyas Iyer as captain, as he has been a superb leader in the IPL. But I was surprised as a World Cup-winning captain, who hasn’t announced any retirement, has been immediately dropped because his batting performance has been poor.”
The former CSK batter also wondered if SKY would be released by Mumbai Indians ahead of the next IPL 2027 season.
“Out of the blue, this makes me wonder – Will we see Suryakumar Yadav released from the Mumbai Indians? Because in T20 cricket, his career is on a dip. His performance, even for MI, has dipped quite a bit and has been very poor this season,” said Badrinath (via the aforementioned source).
“This is the reality of a cricketer’s life, though. Your career will finish in the blink of an eye. Surya was the World Cup-winning captain before the IPL, and now, after the IPL, he’s dropped. His Indian cricketing career is over.”
Under SKY’s leadership in 52 T20I matches, India won 40 and lost only eight games.
