Surya’s poor form weighs on India

The leader in Suryakumar Yadav will nudge the batsman in him to take centre stage and start contributing handsomely with the bat when India take on Australia in the opening T20 International here on Wednesday.

It promises to be a battle on even keel with both countries having won eight of their last 10 T20I games with a defeat each. While India had one tied game, Australia’s one game was washed out. While the captain's prolonged bad patch remains a cause of worry, the Indian T20 team has been the best of three national outfits, almost operating on autopilot with new players taking on their roles like fish to water.

Since being appointed captain, Suryakumar's record has been phenomenal in terms of results with 23 wins in 29 games so far, adhering to the new template of fearless cricket where every batsman goes all guns blazing from ball one.

The aggression at all costs and Surya's own leadership skills have worked really well with an all-win bilateral series record and the Asia Cup triumph. The Australia series marks the beginning of India's real preparation going into the T20 World Cup early next year with 15 games to get into the groove.

But the result of this series will not have a major impact as the next 10 games against South Africa and New Zealand will be in familiar conditions, something similar to what they are likely to get in T20 World Cup.

While head coach Gautam Gambhir was unequivocal in his support for Surya and believes that he doesn't need to worry about his string of low scores, it is indeed time that the captain lets his bat do the talking. In 2023, Surya had batted in 18 innings, scoring 733 runs at a strike rate of nearly 156 and it comprised two tons and five half-centuries.

In 2024, he amassed little less than 450 runs at a strike-rate of 151, but in 2025, the Indian skipper has managed only 100 runs from 10 innings at an average of 11 runs per game. The problem with Surya has been his limited range of strokes.

What stands out as an anomaly is his strike rate of over 105, which suggests that while he has struggled for runs, he hasn’t completely abandoned his attacking intent. "I feel I have been working really hard. Not that I wasn't working hard before. I have had good few sessions back home, good sessions here, so I am in good space," the skipper said at the pre-series press conference at the Manuka Oval.

In terms of the bowling attack, Jasprit Bumrah’s presence and Varun Chakravarthy's guile will be the important factors if Indian batsmen can put up a decent score. The 12 overs from Varun, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel will be very important alongside Bumrah and Arshdeep's opening spells against Travis Head and the dangerous Mitchell Marsh.

All eyes will also be on Mitchell Owen, Australia's new T20 star who played a game for Punjab Kings last year. Owen was terrific against India in a recent ODI in Adelaide, but the possibility of facing 12 overs of slow bowling will definitely test his hitting skills.

The teams:

India: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.

Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott (games 1-3), Xavier Bartlett, Mahli Beardman (games 3-5), Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis (games 4-5), Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood (games 1-2), Glenn Maxwell (games 3-5), Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis.