Suryakumar Yadav cautious despite India’s T20I dominance

With the T20 World Cup fast approaching early next year, India seem to have covered all their bases. The defending champions have won each of the seven T20I series they have been a part of since they recaptured the T20 World Cup last year, with their most recent being a 2-1 series victory in Australia.

Their tally in the format stands at an impressive 26 wins and four losses over this duration.

“There's never anything like all bases covered. We always learn from this game, every game we play. Yeah, till now things look good, touch wood, let's continue that."

He spoke of his side’s camaraderie, "I'm very lucky to have all these boys with different skills. They bring very different things to the table. When we chat about the bowling, batting, and fielding, you must have seen a lot of energy on the ground. People enjoy when they go together on the ground,” said the India captain.

Yadav also praised India’s batting approach, “From a batting point of view, definitely what we've been doing in the last six to eight months, I think we're sticking to that, not changing anything.”

He was full of praise of opening pair, Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma, who seemed to be in full flow before the stoppage of the final T20I game as they amassed 52 runs in 4.5 overs.

“These guys are doing it really well. The way they bat at the top of the order puts a smile on everyone's face when they're batting together.”

Abhishek and Gill were also the leading run-scorers in the T20I series with 163 and 132 runs respectively.

Abhishek Sharma also reached the milestone of 1000 runs in T20Is in the rain-curtailed innings as he achieved the feat in the fewest number of balls faced.

The Indian T20I captain also praised the bowling attack led by ICC Men’s Player of the Year 2024, Jasprit Bumrah, “And also from a bowling point of view as well, people are taking responsibility. Having an experienced bowler like [Jasprit] Bumrah around in the team and everyone chatting with him, learning a lot of skills, tricks and trade of the game, I think that's a good thing.”

India’s bowlers were in form in the T20I series as Varun Chakravarathy was India’s leading wicket taker with five wickets, closely followed by left-arm pacer. Arshdeep Singh, who was one shy.

India now have two more bilateral series at home against South Africa and New Zealand as they gear up to retain their T20 crown in the next three months.

India’s first T20I against South Africa takes place on December 9 at Cuttack, prior to which they will take on the Proteas in two Tests and three ODIs.