Suryakumar over Hardik: ‘The captain should be on the park,’ says Agarkar

The decision to appoint Suryakumar Yadav as India’s T20I captain and hand the white-ball vice-captaincy to Shubman Gill was because “the captain should be on the park”, chief selector Ajit Agarkar has explained. In other words, Hardik Pandya’s struggles with his fitness had worked against him.

“Why Surya was made the captain, because he is one of the deserving candidates,” Agarkar said at a press conference on Monday in Mumbai. “He’s been around the group over the last year, we get feedback from the dressing room a lot. [He has a] good cricket brain, and [is] one of the best T20 batters in the world.

“One of the main issues [discussed] was that you want a captain who’s likely to play all the games. We think he is a deserving candidate and hopefully we’ll see over time how he develops into the role.”

Hardik was India’s vice-captain in the shorter formats till the T20 World Cup 2024, stepping up to lead the team whenever Rohit Sharma was unavailable rested or not available. However, since the start of 2022, Hardik has featured in only 46 of the 79 T20Is India played. He suffered an ankle injury during the ODI World Cup in India last year, and was out of action till the start of IPL 2024. The value of a fully fit Hardik was seen at India’s T20 World Cup win, where he scored 144 runs at a strike rate of 151.57 and returned 11 wickets at an average of 17.36.

Agarkar said the move to not give him additional leadership responsibility will allow the team management to manage his workload better. “We want him to be the player he can be, because those sorts of skillsets are difficult to find. Fitness has been a challenge for him over the last few years. Then it [appointing Hardik captain and losing him to injury] becomes a bit difficult for the coach as well as the selectors. We have now got a bit more time till the next T20 World Cup where we can look at a few things. He’s an important player and his performances are more important for us.

“His fitness is a challenge and we wanted someone who is available more often than not. Surya has the qualities you need to succeed as a captain. Two years is a bit more time to try and look at some things a bit differently. In this way we can manage Hardik better.”

“Every time you play, your place is on the line. These conversations don’t happen overnight. We’ve discussed them over the last few months, leading up to the World Cup as well. You get feedback from the dressing room as well, and the biggest thing is that the captain should be on the park. It’s a prerequisite really. Hopefully Surya does it and so far, there hasn’t been a concern over his T20 batting anyway.”

Shubman Gill being groomed to be India captain

Gill got his first taste of top-flight captaincy at IPL 2024 with Gujarat Titans, and then led India on the tour of Zimbabwe earlier this month, where they won the T20I series 4-1. His place in the ODI and Test teams is certain, and, with Rohit’s T20I retirement, he seems to be the preferred opener in the format alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal.

“Shubman is the guy, we feel. He’s a three-format player, seems to show a lot more qualities over the last year or so that we hear from the dressing room. That’s why we want to have somebody who can learn from the senior guys – Surya in this instance and Rohit, who is still around.

“KL [Rahul] hasn’t been part of T20Is now for a little while. You look at some of the feedback that you get, we’ve got a chance to hit the reset button a little bit, we have got a bit more time to plan. When Hardik did get injured, [captaincy] was a challenge at the point when Rohit wasn’t playing. While Rohit was still around, [it] made our life easier – that he could come and lead. We don’t want that situation going forward. We don’t want to face the same challenges where suddenly we have to look around for a captain in case there are injuries or loss of form somewhere.

“[Shubman] has shown some decent leadership qualities, and we want to try him to get experiences. There are no guarantees but at this point, that’s the thought.

Why Pant over Samson for the SL series?

Despite scoring a century in his last ODI – against South Africa – Sanju Samson did not find a spot in the squad for the Sri Lanka tour. Rahul retained his spot as first-choice wicketkeeper after a successful World Cup last year, Rishabh Pant came in as the back-up gloveman, leaving no room for Samson.

“Before his unfortunate [car] accident, [Rishabh] has been a key player for us,” Agarkar explained. “KL has been terrific in one-day cricket and had a great World Cup. Unfortunately, someone had to miss out, and in this instance, it was Sanju. These guys will have to keep getting runs and performing otherwise you know there is a quality player waiting. With a big Test season coming up, we feel these two will have a huge role to play. To get Rishabh playing 50 overs will be a step forward, hopefully he’ll build on what he’s done so far.”

With Pant only now making his way back in the longer formats, India did not want to burden him with the responsibility of being the vice-captain.

“Rishabh’s been out for a long time, we need to get him back playing,” Agarkar said. “He is a key player, hasn’t had a lot of cricket. We’ve seen what he can do in international cricket, he’s won Test series almost off his own bat. We want him back playing, that’s the first thing. We don’t want to burden somebody again who’s coming back after over a year.”

Jadeja has not been dropped

Agarkar also said that Ravindra Jadeja “was not dropped” from the ODI set-up, but was left out to give opportunities to Axar Patel.

“It would have been really pointless to take both him and Axar for this short series. We know what Jaddu has done. He’s had a terrific World Cup. All options are open. But there was [a chance that only] one of them would have played all three games if we had taken both. There’s a big Test season coming up where he’s likely to feature in a lot of the Tests. I don’t think three games would have mattered. So, no, [he is] not at all dropped.”

Agarkar also made it clear that with Shreyas Iyer, Rahul and Pant back in ODIs, Suryakumar is being looked at as a T20I player for India.

Some Test players likely to play Duleep Trophy

Agarkar said that some of India’s Test players are likely to play the first Duleep Trophy game this season. The Duleep Trophy this season will be held between September 5 and 22 in Anantpur. India are expected to start their home season with a Test series against Bangladesh in mid-September.

“We haven’t discussed with Gautam yet – it’s not always easy – but there will certainly be enough players out of that squad that are likely to play the first [Duleep Trophy] game at least,” Agarkar said. “That’s the only game they can really play. We’ll sit down and discuss which guys really need to play. It’s nice for the competition if all your top players come and play. It is not easy with such a packed and long season, tough for the players if they have a week off somewhere to make them play. There will be some in the squad who will play.”

Agarkar said that the goal for Mohammed Shami is to get fit in time for India’s home Tests. The fast bowler has not played any cricket since November 2023 and had to undergo ankle surgery later on. He has just started bowling again at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. “There are so many Tests coming up. In India, you don’t play three seamers in the XI but going forward we’ll need some depth and have conversations around it.”

S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7