"You would get a big message today"- Suryakumar Yadav's childhood coach on the message he sent the star batter ahead of captaincy announcement
Suryakumar Yadav's childhood coach Ashok Aswalkar was thrilled to see the star batter named India's T20I captain for the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka. Suryakumar has taken over the reins from Rohit Sharma, who retired from T20Is after winning the T20 World Cup.
Aswalkar claimed that he had messaged Suryakumar earlier on Thursday (July 18) that he would be getting great news. He was proud of what the star batter had achieved and being bestowed with such a crucial role.
Speaking about Suryakumar Yadav's learnings after brushing shoulders with some veteran cricketers, Ashok Aswalkar told TOI:
"I had messaged him (Suryakumar) in the afternoon saying that you would get a big message today, and in the evening, when we heard the news, I felt very proud...I feel very happy. Captaincy is a slightly different role. He played in the World Cup 2024 with great players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja. By playing with such great cricketers, we get to learn a lot."
Shubman Gill has been named as the vice-captain of the T20I side, which suggests that the youngster is being groomed in a future leadership role.
Suryakumar Yadav pipped Hardik Pandya in the captaincy role
All-rounder Hardik Pandya was named as the vice-captain of the Indian team at the T20 World Cup and seemed a front-runner to replace Rohit as India's full-time T20I captain. However, over the past couple of days, several reports started making rounds about Suryakumar Kumar being a possible candidate and that's proven to be true.
Suryakumar has already captained the Indian T20I team in a couple of series. He won the series against Australia 4-1 last year and managed to level the series against South Africa 1-1.
T20I Squad against Sri Lanka: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.
ODI Squad against Sri Lanka: Rohit Sharma (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.