“Why was Suryakumar Yadav made India’s captain ahead of Hardik Pandya?” - India’s chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar answers

The Indian cricket team’s chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar gave a clarity and answered one of the most important questions that has been going around the Indian cricket circles for a few days now.

The former India speedster gave an insight on why Suryakumar Yadav was made the captain of the Indian cricket team in the T20 format ahead of Hardik Pandya. Pandya’s name was doing the rounds while in the eleventh hour, Suryakumar’s name popped up and he pipped his India team mate for the job.

“Why was Surya made the captain? Because he is one of the deserving candidates. The one we know, he has been around the dressing room over the last year and we got feedback from the dressing room too. He has got a good cricketing brain and he is still one of the best T20 batters in the world,” Agarkar explained.

The chairman of selectors added that Suryakumar was given the responsibility as he would be playing all games in the format and Hardik’s fitness did him in. “You want a captain who is going to be more likely to play all the games. We think he’s a deserving candidate and hopefully we’ll see over time how he develops into the role. Hardik is still a very important player for us. We want him to be the player that he can be because those sorts of skill sets are very difficult to find. Fitness, obviously, has been a challenge for him over the last few years and then it becomes a little bit more difficult for him and even as selectors,” Agarkar explained.

The chairman of selectors added that his team has spoken to Hardik and elaborated on the role he needs to play in the team. “We also feel we can manage Hardik better, we have seen what he can do with the bat and ball in the World Cup. We speak to every player, whether their role has changed, and, yes, we have also spoken to him” Agarkar added.

The former Indian player added that Suryakumar however is not in the plans for the ODI format, given that there is a stable middle order. “We have not discussed Surya for ODIs at this point in time. Shreyas (Iyer) and KL (Rahul) are back and they had a great World Cup (2023 ODI World Cup in India). Rishabh (Pant) is back as well, so there is some real quality through that middle-order,” he explained.

India’s upcoming series is against Sri Lanka where the Indian team will play three T20Is and three ODIs in Pallekele and Colombo, respectively. Rohit Sharma will continue to lead the Indian team in the ODIs.