Legendary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has given a cautious verdict to the sacking of Suryakumar Yadav as well as his removal from the Indian T20I team as a player.
The T20 World Cup 2026 winning captain Suryakumar Yadav was dropped from the squad as India announced the T20I squad for the series of Ireland and England on June 7. Sheyas Iyer was named the new captain of the T20I team, with Tilak Varma as his deputy.
Reacting to this development, R Ashwin opened up on how Suryakumar must have felt with this decision. The off-spinner felt that despite not being in great form as a batter, he was good as a skipper of the side, and the BCCI should have given him more chances as batter.
"Look, I think it's a very interesting precedent. I just want to put myself in Suryakumar Yadav's shoes and for an instance think how he would be feeling at this point of time. I'm sure every player has got the right to be gutted about being left out of the side and that's fair if he's feeling bad about it,” Ashwin said to ESPNcricinfo.
He further talked about it is fine if the Mumbai batter is hurt by this decision, because this is coming after leading his country to their third-ever T20I World Cup as a captain.
"But just the whole, the way it's been done, I'm a little apprehensive about the whole thing. Because in my head I'm thinking, okay... I'm just putting myself in Surya's shoes and thinking about it. 'Okay, sure, my batting form has let me down over the last 18 months or 15 months or whatever it is. I haven't been in the prime form that I could have been. But then I managed to win a T20 World Cup for the country,” he continued.
The former CSK player further noted that this sets a very tough precedent for the future selection calls, and has set a precedent for it.
"Can we put big stalwarts in his shoes? Has there been an instance where a captain who's won the T20 World Cup has been left out without any ultimatum? I'm sure there's been communication. I have no doubts with regards to that. But this is quite a landmark day in selection. Because this will be taken as some sort of a precedent when the next time such a thing ever comes up,” Ashwin concluded.
Just after his sacking from the Indian team, Suryakumar Yadav bounced back strongly with a well made 48 off 24 balls for his side Triumphs Knights MNE in the T20 Mumbai 2026.
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