MUMBAI: At a time when there is huge speculation around whether he would stay on as India’s T20 captain for the tours of Ireland and England, Suryakumar Yadav’s poor form shows no sign of relenting.On Tuesday, the 35-year-old, captaining Triumph Knights in their opening match of Season 4 of the T20 Mumbai League, was out for 19 off 11 balls as his team lost by 21 runs against North Mumbai Panthers at the Wankhede Stadium. Surya started off well, adding 37 in 25 balls for the third wicket with youngster Nutan Goel, who smashed a valiant 93 off 56 balls, but was caught at deep square leg off spinner Rahul Sawant (2-32 in four overs) in the seventh over. Chasing 189, Triumph Knights were restricted to 188 for eight. Even as captained India to their second consecutive T20 World Cup title in Feb-March, Surya endured ordinary form in the tournament, managing to score merely 242 runs in nine matches at 30.25, with a highest score of 84 not out against USA in the opening match at the Wankhede Stadium in MumbaiThe veteran batsman’s fortunes with the bat didn’t improve in IPL-2026, where he scored just 260 runs in 13 matches at 20.76, with a strike rate of 147.54, with just two fifties, for the Mumbai Indians, who crashed out in the league stage.India are set to play two T20Is against Ireland later this month in Belfast. The first T20I is scheduled for June 26, and second T20I will be played two days later on June 28.
