Who should be the next Indian T20I captain after potential removal of SuryaKumar Yadav?

[The Bald Eagle]

SuryaKumar Yadav is long past his prime, in the twilight of his career and had a horrible Asia Cup 2025 as an individual player. The only thing he was good at was making cringe facial expressions after missing the ball and other shenanigans. He tried his best to lose the tournament for India but he had an equally incompetent counterpart in the final who covered up his follies including the audacity to let Tilak bowl in a tense situation. So he should be the next potential T20I captain for India in T20 WC 2026?

Should Hardik Pandya be reinstated or someone else should be given the chance to lead their team?

 

[jnaveen1980]

They are grooming Gill which is a terrible move. He doesn't deserve a spot in the side. His strike rate of 151 in Asia cup doesn't tell the whole story. He lacks a lot of things that modern T20 batsman requires. He has the ability. But he cannot play that way now that he is fully into Tests. A test class batsman cannot dramatically make that switch every time he plays T20. Jaiswal hit 26 sixes in one test series against England. Untouchabel record that is. Also has one of the highest strike rate for an opener in T20 history. Ideally Hardik should captain.

 

[Devadwal]

Should be hardik but gill is likely to become next captain.

And sky is not going anywhere till 2026 World T20. This is how team management trust him although I don't like it.

 

[Mockingbird]

Hardik. Gill has no place in T20s.

 

[sweep_shot]

Gill or Bumrah.

 

[Mockingbird]

Gill or Bumrah.

Bumrah is not going to play all T20Is.

 

[JaDed]

Hardik..I don’t mind Gill but he isn’t impressive as a captain in T20..

 

[shamaan]

Hardik 100% pluss he doesn't play tests.

 

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

Tilak Verma

 

[BreadPakoda]

SKY captained well but failed as a batsman and may even be asked to leave but I’ve noticed people even comparing him to Agha.

I know Pak supporters hate him for off field reasons and Indians just have too high a standard, but just look at his captaincy record.

India has won (incl. via super overs) 25 of the 29 games under him. The 4 losses were against SA, England, and Australia across 17 games.

 

[Mockingbird]

Should be hardik but gill is likely to become next captain.

And sky is not going anywhere till 2026 World T20. This is how team management trust him although I don't like it.

Exactly. Indians don’t chop and change regularly which is the way it should be, but honestly I feel SKY is done as a batsman. He is a very limited player who can play only on the flattest of pitches.

 

[rhony]

Shreyas Iyer should be the next captain and should take Surya's spot. Hes young, has captaincy credentials as an IPL winningg captain, solid dependable and explosive middle order batsman. Also from Mumbai so there won't be much noise from Gavaskar and Manjrekar types.

 

[Mockingbird]

Shreyas Iyer should be the next captain and should take Surya's spot. Hes young, has captaincy credentials as an IPL winningg captain, solid dependable and explosive middle order batsman. Also from Mumbai so there won't be much noise from Gavaskar and Manjrekar types.

I like that option too. But how do you fit in Shreyas in this team, knowing that GG prefers multi-tasking players. Shreyas for Samson or Dube?

 

[NishanKonar]

Ideally Hardik Pandya

 

[Cryin Out Loud]

Don’t like him from what I can see in the media, but I’d recommend Iyer.

 

[Ab Fan]

He will continue to captain India in T20 WC 2026.

 

[prisha]

Iyer is better as captain. gambhir seems to have something against iyer so he won’t be in the team. In that case pandya and bumrah should be co captains. As pandya is so prone to injuries and bumrah won’t play all the matches.

 

[Cover Drive Six]

I don’t think he is getting removed anytime in the next 4 years. Looks like he is living rent-free in Pakistani fans heads after thrashing them 3-0 in a single tournament… lol. Opening dozens of threads

 

[Mamoon]

Iyer should be the next white ball captain of India, but it’s not going to happen because BCCI has a clear agenda against him.

He is a really good player but some influential folks in Indian cricket clearly hate him and don’t want to see him succeed.

 

[sweep_shot]

Hardik..I don’t mind Gill but he isn’t impressive as a captain in T20..

Forgot about Hardik.

Yeah. I think he is another good captaincy option. Someone with good experience and good track record.

 

[Cover Drive Six]

Iyer should be the next white ball captain of India, but it’s not going to happen because BCCI has a clear agenda against him.

He is a really good player but some influential folks in Indian cricket clearly hate him and don’t want to see him succeed.

There is no agenda. BCCI only put him in his place earlier because of disciplinary issues. He had skipped the domestic season for IPL preparations without informing. Now that there are no such issues, he will be considered for ODI captaincy.
In T20s, our middle order is heavily competitive, and he narrowly missed out this time. He can always make a comeback depending on the performance of the current players.

 

[rhony]

I like that option too. But how do you fit in Shreyas in this team, knowing that GG prefers multi-tasking players. Shreyas for Samson or Dube?

Shreyas for Sky. Samson should open. Gill doesnt fit in the team currently.

 

[harshjoshi87]

Surya isn't going anywhere. Even though he has lost his form, he led India to the Asia Cup title unbeaten plus defeated Pakistan 3 times in a row. His form will come back when he plays on flat tracks of Australia & India.

Surya would probably remain captain until 2028 Olympics/T20 World Cup if he keeps making runs.

Hardik or Shreyas should take over the reigns if Surya loses his place, Gill should lead in tests & ODIs.

 

[Hellion]

Iyer should be the next white ball captain of India, but it’s not going to happen because BCCI has a clear agenda against him.

He is a really good player but some influential folks in Indian cricket clearly hate him and don’t want to see him succeed.

Myth. The only reason anyone had something against him was because he, seemingly, ditched red ball cricket to play some local T20 league.

But he has had at least had one back surgery and it involved removing some part of a bone. And now his body cannot take the workload of fielding for multiple days.

Think BCCI are now aware of it and going forward , they won't mind him skipping some red ball cricket.

If they really had something against him , he wouldn't have played Champions Trophy

 

[Prince of Dorne]

Don't worry Pakistaniyo, SKY ain't going nowhere, we do experiments but unlike Pak we don't play musical chair with the captainship. He will get back his form, just going through a temporary lean patch . Still has insane stats in t20 plus the kind of humiliation of biblical level he dishes out in less than a month even Kohli couldn't match that despite thrasing Pakistan nonstop for over a decade. Now all that may not be his decision but he is still the face of this handshake saga and currently is at the peak of his popularity and public perception matters.

 

[prash88]

The days of all format-batter are gone. T20s has diverged so much from ODIs and Tests that it should be considered a separate sport altogether, especially for batting.

Shubman Gill can't perform consistently as batter if he plays all three formats. The muscle memory for a T20 batter is drastically different from Tests and ODI. His predecessors, Virat Kohli, Rohit and KL Rahul couldn't perform consistently across all three formats, over a sustained period. Kohli lost his entire red-ball mastery that he had to prematurely retire in that format by an year or two. Rohit Sharma was hitting great form in tests, then he unlocked his 2.0 in white ball, changed his batting style in whiteball to go bang-bang in PP - his redball form completely went blank for it. KL Rahul had great SR in whiteball when he started but his test form suffered. Then he altered his game to perform in tests that he is never the same better he was in T20s since.

 

[saimayubera]

SKY captained well but failed as a batsman and may even be asked to leave but I’ve noticed people even comparing him to Agha.

I know Pak supporters hate him for off field reasons and Indians just have too high a standard, but just look at his captaincy record.

India has won (incl. via super overs) 25 of the 29 games under him. The 4 losses were against SA, England, and Australia across 17 games.

Agha sucks

SKY was great in his peak and helped India win a WC with useful contributions throughout the tournament and THE GREATEST CATCH OF ALL TIME.

 

[AamchiMumbaikar]

Pandya/ iyer

 

[Mockingbird]

Shreyas for Sky. Samson should open. Gill doesnt fit in the team currently.

Agreed, I would love to see a team like this:

Abhishek
Samson (wk)
Jaiswal
Tilak Verma
Shreyas Iyer (c)
Shivam Dube
Hardik Pandya
Axar Patel
Kuldeep
VC/ Arshdeep
Bumrah

 

[OldWarHorse]

Hardik hopefully. He was harshly removed from the job, he is an alright captain.

 

[Local.Dada]

Sky should be in the squad not in the X1 as official spokesperson Jaiswal ko leke aao please.

 

[Major]

Should be Rinku Singh

 

[Ball Blazer]

Pandya

 

[Local.Dada]

Pandya

It will either be Gill or Shreyas Iyer. Pandya will never captain the side if he hadn’t already . Indian cricket usually doesn’t have a curveball. Dhoni was an exception but mostly they go with the safe candidate.

 

[jeeteshssaxena]

Sky will get more chances, his stats in t20is are insane.