In a massive decision, the BCCI selectors dropped Suryakumar Yadav from India’s T20I squad. The teams for the upcoming T20I series against Ireland and England, as well as the Asian Games, were announced on Saturday, with Suryakumar, the previous captain in the format, being replaced by Shreyas Iyer in the role. Taking over India’s T20I captaincy after the retirement of Rohit Sharma from the format, Suryakumar led India to the World Cup title earlier this year. However, his returns with the bat were below par.
While the T20I captaincy change was announced by the BCCI on Saturday, sources had already confirmed the decision to NDTV well before that. Speaking about the move, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin criticised the Board’s decision. He made the remark on his YouTube channel, as quoted by Sportskeeda, a day prior to the announcement.
“Shreyas Iyer should have been in the T20 squad last time. But when you do return, do you have to return straight as the hero? On what basis did you suddenly judge his captaincy credentials? Shreyas definitely warrants a discussion for a place in the Indian T20 team. But is there any hole in the Indian T20 team? Except for spin-bowling, there are no holes. So why make this change?” Ashwin said.
He cited the example of legendary captain MS Dhoni, who led Chennai Super Kings to the Indian Premier League title in 2011. From 43.55 in the title-winning season, Dhoni’s average dipped to 29.83 the following edition. However, he remained in the side and put on an improved show the next year. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 461 runs at an average of 41.90 in IPL 2013.
“MS Dhoni won the 2011 IPL as captain. If he doesn’t perform in the 2012 IPL, will you drop him in the 2013 IPL? Then how can you drop Suryakumar Yadav? Yes, he is not in form as a batter. But give him clarity that he’ll play only as a batter, as he’s not an automatic selection in the side,” Ashwin concluded.