Suryakumar Yadav’s childhood coach Ashok Aswalkar has expressed his pride after SKY was appointed as T20I captain for the upcoming Sri Lanka tour.
Suryakumar Yadav’s Childhood Coach Opens on T20I captaincy
BCCI announced India squads for the Sri Lanka tour on July 18 with Suryakumar Yadav to lead the squad in the T20I leg while Rohit Sharma will be captaining the side in the ODI format.
After many speculations on the T20I captaincy race between Hardik Pandya and SKY, BCCI named Suryakumar Yadav as the T20I captain.
Ashok Aswalkar also said that he had messaged SKY before his T20I appointment and anticipated that he would get good news. Surykumar has captained the T20I side against South Africa.
After Rohit Sharma’s T20I retirement announcement, Suryakumar Yadav has been appointed as the T20I captain. “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,” said Aswalkar.
This will be the first assignment for Surykumar’s first assignment as Team India as well as for Gautam Gambhir who took over the head coach post from Rahul Dravid after India’s T20 World Cup triumph.
Under SKY’s captaincy, India secured a dominating victory of 4-1 against Australia in November 2023 while leveling the three-match series 1-1 against South Africa in December.
Shubman Gill who led the side to a 4-1 victory in India’s tour of Zimbabwe 2024 will be serving as the vice-captain of the T20I as well as ODI format for the Sri Lanka tour. The Sri Lanka tour will start with the T20I leg starting on July 27 at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium while the ODI series will start on August 02.
India T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman 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, Mohammed Siraj.
