Suryakumar Yadav says he has no plans to retire after T20I snub, credits wife for reigniting passion
Suryakumar Yadav told former India cricketer Aakash Chopra on 2026-08-30 that after being removed as India’s T20I captain and dropped from the squad he spent 40-50 days at home unsure of his future. “Then for 40 or 50 days I was sitting at home doing nothing, completely shocked, thinking, ‘What should I do now? Should I play, should I not play, what should be done next?’ A lot was going through my mind,” Suryakumar said in the interview.
Suryakumar led India through a successful run in T20 internationals, with the team winning the 2025 Asia Cup and the 2026 T20 World Cup and remaining unbeaten in bilateral T20I series under his leadership. He had expected to continue as captain, but the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee handed the captaincy to Shreyas Iyer and dropped Suryakumar from the T20I squad; the 35-year-old has not played since leading India to the T20 World Cup triumph in March.
During the period of uncertainty, Suryakumar said his wife, Devisha Shetty, intervened and urged him to reconnect with the reasons he began playing. “One day my wife said, ‘Just think about why you started playing this game 20 years ago when you were a 13- or 15-year-old... Because you were mad for this game; you had passion.’ I said, ‘Yes, definitely true.’ She said, ‘Then bring that passion back again.’”
He said Devisha also asked him to reflect on his achievements over the previous five years, reminding him of the milestones he had reached. The list she referenced included five World Cups, two ICC T20 Player of the Year awards, the No. 1 T20I ranking and the iconic catch in the 2024 T20 World Cup final before his crowning moment as captain in 2026. “People play for 10 years, 15 years, 20 or 25 years, and they don't get to achieve what you have achieved in the last five years,” she told him.
Suryakumar described how his wife encouraged practical steps to rebuild his routine: returning to the gym, playing tennis-ball and rubber-ball cricket and spending time with friends. He recounted his own doubts about the future and his eventual decision to refocus: “I said I have the passion to play cricket, but what is the road forward? You can't see anything ahead; it's all foggy, nothing makes sense.”
He said the urge to play began to return recently and that personal motivations helped restore his drive. “Two or three weeks back, that drive started. Looking at my daughter every day, it hit me that now I have to play for her.” Suryakumar added that he is training again and batting in full flow and that he intends to concentrate on T20 cricket for the remainder of his career: “I am 35 right now; after 38 or 39 you can relax, but whatever 3 or 4 years are left, I want to play with the exact same passion that I have played with until today,” he said.
“That love is back, that drive is back, that focus, discipline, everything is back again, and I am on track,” Suryakumar said, and he will look to the upcoming white-ball domestic season as the immediate opportunity to remind selectors of his form and value.
