Ajit Agarkar: Shreyas Iyer replacing Suryakumar Yadav ‘best way forward’

Leaving out India’s recent T20 World Cup-winning captain Suryakumar Yadav was a “tough decision” which the selection panel “deliberated a lot,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar has said. The decision was partly because of Suryakumar’s recent form, while Shreyas Iyer, with his T20 form and IPL leadership, made such a strong case that the selectors thought this was “the best way forward” looking ahead to the next T20 World Cup to be played in October 2028.

The axing of the T20 World Cup-winning captain – and dropping him altogether from the side – is unprecedented in Indian cricket, but Agarkar said it was done “in the interest of what the team needs going forward.”

“With regards to Surya, obviously, it’s a tough one, having just won the World Cup, but as it happens, after most World Cups, we try and reassess what the best way forward is,” Agarkar said while announcing the T20I squad for Ireland and England in Mumbai on Saturday. “Partly his own form, but also looking at the next two-year cycle, or a little bit more than two years now till the next World Cup, we thought this was the best way forward. Like I said, Shreyas is a well-deserving candidate.

“Of course, it’s a tough decision [to leave out Suryakumar]. Someone who led you in the World Cup, it’s not the easiest thing to try and change. But like I said, we’ve not had any international cricket after that World Cup. Partly the form, but partly also how we go forward is always at the back of your mind. And moving ahead, with a new captain, in this case Shreyas was in our view the right call.”

Suryakumar’s 270 runs from 13 innings in the recent IPL was his lowest tally in the tournament since IPL 2017, when he had played seven innings for 105 runs for Kolkata Knight Riders. His average in IPL 2026 was 20.76, again his lowest since IPL 2017, and his strike rate of 147.54 this time was his worst since IPL 2022.

Questions around Suryakumar’s form had started much earlier when his runs started to dry up in T20Is in 2025. He started that year with just 28 runs in five innings at home against England at an average of 5.60. His next assignment was the Asia Cup in the UAE where he crossed 15 just once – in a league game against Pakistan – and finished with 72 runs from six innings with a strike rate of 101.40. While India won the title and Suryakumar insisted he was “not out of form, but out of runs,” his next two series also didn’t get him great returns. In four innings in Australia, he scored 84 runs, and on returning to India, he managed just 34 runs in four innings to average 8.50 while striking at 103.03 against South Africa.

It was only at the start of 2026 that he turned his form around against New Zealand at home, when he smashed three half-centuries in five innings, registered just one single-digit score, and finished the series with an average of 80.66 and a strike rate of 196.74. He also started the T20 World Cup with a bang, scoring a match-turning, unbeaten 84 off 49 balls against USA. But he couldn’t cross 35 after that in eight innings while leading India to the title.

“I mean, you look at his performance in the last couple of years,” Agarkar said. “But he was a captain who was doing really well, winning so many games. He eventually ended up winning the World Cup. Obviously, we deliberated it a lot, especially when someone led you to a World Cup. It’s not the easiest sort of discussion to have, but… At some stage, we were going to look at it. Whether the IPL form dictated it, I’m not so sure that’s the case. There were always conversations around it. Like I said, because Shreyas playing as well as he is, particularly with the bat, sometimes makes the decision a little bit easier.”

Agarkar also explained that the next T20 World Cup being more than two years away gave the team management ample time to plan things, unlike the 19-month gap between the 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups. Agarkar said he had a chat with Surykumar recently about his axe from the T20I side, but didn’t want to reveal the details.

“Yeah, I talk to most people when we are making such decisions, particularly when it comes to a captain, who has just won a World Cup,” Agarkar said. “So, that’s a chat between me and him.

“Like I said, it’s a conversation between Surya and me. And, look, we know he’s been captain and just won a World Cup. So it’s not the easiest conversation when you want to tell the player that. But we’re doing everything in the interest of what the team needs going forward.”

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