Former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has questioned the logic of dropping Suryakumar Yadav from India’s T20I setup ahead of the upcoming assignments against Ireland and England, saying he struggles to understand why the batter’s place in the squad is being treated as a certainty. With the All India Senior Men’s Selection Committee scheduled to meet on Saturday to shape India’s team for the next set of T20 matches, Ashwin has thrown his weight behind Suryakumar—especially given the context of the player’s recent leadership and World Cup success. He suggested that even if the results with the bat haven’t matched expectations, there should still be room for another opportunity.
Suryakumar, who guided India to the third T20 World Cup title earlier this year, is reportedly set to step aside from the captaincy role. The change is expected to see Shreyas Iyer take over as skipper. Ashwin, however, argued that removing a tournament-winning captain from the squad entirely doesn’t feel justified, particularly when the skipper’s experience and past contribution to India’s fortunes are being overlooked. In Ashwin’s view, Suryakumar’s recent slump in form has become the headline reason for the likely call-up decision, but it should not automatically erase the value of giving him further chances.
For the right-handed top-order batter, the form dip has been hard to ignore. His struggles for the Mumbai Indians during the IPL 2026 season, where his output failed to reach expected levels, appear to have influenced the selectors’ thinking. The wider picture, Ashwin pointed out through his commentary, also includes a below-par T20 World Cup campaign for Suryakumar, where he managed only one meaningful innings—against the USA at the Wankhede Stadium—while the rest of his returns fell short of the standard he set earlier in the tournament cycle.
The 35-year-old’s captaincy is thus expected to change, but Ashwin’s stance was clear: one could understand a discussion about the role as captain, yet leaving the player out of the national squad altogether is a different matter. He framed his argument around the idea that a captain who has delivered a title deserves time to find his rhythm again, rather than being pushed aside immediately after a rough patch.
Speaking on his YouTube channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’, Ashwin reflected on what he called the loss of the “human touch” in cricket decision-making. He said it wasn’t simple for Suryakumar to step into the IPL 2026 season after winning the T20 World Cup, and he also noted that personal circumstances were in the mix as the batter was approaching fatherhood. Ashwin questioned whether expectations had been unrealistic, adding that although it was reasonable to anticipate a shift in intensity, Suryakumar was still the captain who had won the World Cup and therefore warranted patience rather than an immediate verdict. “Where have we lost the human touch? Where has it gone? An Indian captain who won the tournament, you could have had a bit of human touch,” Ashwin said, before acknowledging that Suryakumar’s batting form hadn’t been up to the mark. He then pressed for a final chance, arguing that removing him from captaincy can be acceptable, but excluding him from the squad entirely didn’t make sense.
There is also a leadership record that cannot be ignored. Under Suryakumar’s captaincy, India did not lose any T20I series. At the same time, Ashwin stressed that the decline in batting returns had been visible for a while, with the previous year also bringing a frustrating stretch where Suryakumar failed to score a single half-century for India. That combination—strong team results from a captain, paired with fading batting impact—has now set the stage for a potential selection call that Ashwin clearly disagrees with.
“Not fine”: Ashwin defends giving time
Ashwin went further, saying Suryakumar should have been afforded two or three more T20I series to rediscover his form. If the player still failed to deliver after that window, then Ashwin believes selectors would be justified in moving on. In his argument, the key issue is the absence of faith combined with the speed of the decision. He questioned how it could be “fine” to discard a player who had delivered the World Cup, arguing that teams need to communicate clearly—either back the player with responsibility and time, or remove the captaincy role while still keeping the player in the picture.
“How is it fine? I understand that he hasn’t been among the runs. But he won the World Cup. You have a way of doing things,” Ashwin said. He suggested that if selectors did not believe Suryakumar could help the team, then they should not make him captain in the first place. But if they are willing to continue trusting him, they should give him time to turn things around. Ashwin also drew comparisons to Australia’s approach to squad management, saying that in Australia there is typically more solid communication and clearer backing for players through rough phases. He maintained that Suryakumar deserved a spot in the team, and if he does not perform in the next two or three series, then selectors can communicate that they are moving forward without him.
Suryakumar has led India in 52 T20 internationals, during which the Men in Blue won 40 matches. Yet Ashwin’s criticism is largely aimed at the batting side of the conversation, because it is Suryakumar’s run-scoring output that has accounted for most of the disappointment. The former spinner also pointed out that the right-hander has not been in rhythm even in the ongoing Mumbai T20 league, reinforcing the idea that form has slipped across competitions rather than being limited to international cricket alone.
