Suryakumar Yadav, India’s T20I captain and a star batsman, is back in the nets. He started practicing at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru recently. This is his first time in the nets since his hernia surgery in June.
The Asia Cup 2025 starts on September 9 and he wants to be in his best shape before that. He had surgery for a sports hernia in Munich earlier this year and there were doubts over when he would be fit to play international matches again. This was his third surgery in three years.
His practice at the NCA is a good sign that he’s on the mend. The NCA performance and medical team are monitoring him and gradually increasing his workload.
Since Suryakumar is still recovering, the West Zone selectors didn’t pick him in their 15-man squad for the Duleep Trophy. They asked about his availability but he was already at the NCA for rehab and so couldn’t play domestic cricket right now. Shardul Thakur is captain of the West Zone team which has experienced players like Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan.
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Earlier this year Suryakumar scored 717 runs for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2025. Only Sai Sudharsan scored more runs than him in the entire tournament. He was only the second Mumbai Indians batsman, after Sachin Tendulkar, to score over 600 runs in a season. His performance was key to Mumbai reaching the playoffs where they beat Gujarat Titans in the Eliminator and lost to Punjab Kings in the second qualifier.
Now everyone is focused on getting him fit for the Asia Cup. His return was first planned for the T20I series against Bangladesh but that series has been postponed. If he can play in the Asia Cup it will be a big boost for India.
According to ESPNcricinfo, Suryakumar had his first net session last week. As the Asia Cup 2025 gets closer his fitness will be watched closely and his training will get more intense. The tournament starts on September 9 in the UAE and India will play their first match against the hosts on September 10.Suryakumar was supposed to be back for the Bangladesh series in August but that series has been pushed to next year. This is his third surgery in three years. He had ankle surgery in 2023 and the same sports hernia surgery in 2024.
This will be Suryakumar’s first major tournament as the captain of the Indian T20 team. He took over the captaincy after Rohit Sharma stepped down after India won the 2024 T20 World Cup.
With Suryakumar as captain, India’s T20I team has been playing more aggressive and flexible batting. The team has scored over 200 multiple times, including 297 against Bangladesh in October 2024 which is the second highest score in T20I history.
Surya has done a great job as T20I captain. He has won 18 out of 22 games he has led so far. That’s 4th most wins by an Indian captain in T20I’s in such a short time.
His win percentage is actually the highest among all Indian captains who have led in 20+ T20I’s. And he has never lost 2 T20I’s in a row. That’s stability and good leadership.
And he has not lost a single T20I series decided over multiple games. He has won series against strong teams. Australia, Bangladesh and England. 2 series against South Africa and 1 against Sri Lanka. Against different teams he has shown his captaincy skills.
