Suryakumar Yadav Took U turn On His Statement: The ICC T20 World Cup 2026, hosted by India and Sri Lanka, is going to start from 7th February. Expectations from Team India regarding this tournament are continuously increasing. One and a half years ago, under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, the Indian team became world champion in this tournament. Whereas this time under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav, Team India will try to save this title. In such a situation, there will be a lot of responsibility on the team and especially on Captain Suryakumar. Now the hope is that by coming so close to the tournament, Team India will be clear about its strategies. However, it seems that the Indian team is still not completely confident about its batting order. For this reason, within a month the Indian captain has retracted his statement.

What did captain Suryakumar Yadav say on the batting order?

Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav came for a press conference on Tuesday i.e. January 20, 2026, where he answered questions related to the 5-match T20 series against New Zealand starting on Wednesday i.e. January 21. During this time, when he was asked about the playing eleven, he told that Ishan Kishan will be given a chance in place of injured Tilak Verma and he will come to bat at number 3.

However, when Suryakumar was asked about his batting order, the Indian captain announced that he would bat at number 4 instead of number 3 and while explaining the reason for this, he said, ‘My figures are good at both number 3 and number 4. Maybe fourth place is a little better. We want to be flexible about this and if the right-handed batsman is out then I will go, otherwise the left-handed batsman (Tilak Verma if fit) will go.

Suryakumar took a U-turn on his words within a month

Suryakumar Yadav had given a statement regarding left-right combination exactly a month ago. In which he had called it overrated and he was seen against it. At the same time, ever since head coach Gautam Gambhir has been associated with Team India, he has been following the policy of left-right combination. But in the press conference held during the announcement of Team India for the T20 World Cup on December 21, 2025, captain Suryakumar Yadav was seen turning away from that policy.

Then the Indian captain had described Tilak as the number-3 batsman and said, ‘We have come to a point where Gauti Bhai (coach Gambhir) and I feel that the left-right combination is a bit overrated. Now we have decided that Tilak will play at number 3 and I will play at number 4.