Suryakumar Yadav has made a strange comment.
After winning the T20 World Cup 2026, India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav has taken a subtle dig at the 2024 campaign. In an interview with The Indian Express, Suryakumar exclaimed that he knew the brand of cricket played in the last edition wouldn’t work.
Adding to his point, the Indian captain said he had asked his team not to focus on personal milestones when he took over the charge one and a half years ago. This clearly suggests Suryakumar feels the victorious T20 World Cup 2024 side was obsessed with personal milestones, with players putting it ahead of the team’s benefits.
“We knew the way we played the 2024 T20 World Cup — that brand of cricket — won’t work going ahead. So we decided: from hereon, we will not pay attention to personal milestones; the goal is to win games. If you noticed, till the semifinals, none of our players were top run-getters or top wicket-takers. But we qualified and kept winning. Every game, every player contributed. It was very important to spread this thing like a virus in the team from the start. We planted this team culture 18 months back.”
Indeed, it’s a strange comment from Suryakumar Yadav, considering he was part of the squad last time and followed Rohit Sharma’s pattern closely in the tournament. That side, or even any side for that matter, has never played for personal milestones, which is why India won the tournament without losing a game in the USA and the West Indies.
While every team plays with a certain brand that might not work, Rohit Sharma’s India clearly played with a better intent and clarity after the Adelaide debacle in 2022. Their motive was to remain fearless irrespective of the situation – a change that was visible at the T20 World Cup 2024.
ALSO READ:
During that moment, India played in varied conditions from sluggish tracks in New York to flat ones in St. Lucia and adjusted brilliantly. They consistently posted above-par totals against teams like Afghanistan and Australia and never looked to play for milestones, something Suryakumar has claimed.
In contrast, India in 2026 were clearly under pressure on multiple occasions in home comforts when they didn’t get flat wickets. From the opening game against USA to eventually losing to South Africa, the Men in Blue showed multiple issues as a unit and couldn’t show application on non-flat surfaces.
Undoubtedly, the 2026 T20 World Cup side was better than the 2024 one, but neither was obsessed with their own performance, and everyone played for the team’s cause. And the current unit could have faced a lot of issues in the conditions offered in the previous edition, considering how they fared on much better decks at home.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
