Suryakumar Yadav’s extraordinary international career turned five on Saturday and the Indian T20I captain marked the occassion with a touching post on his social media handles. Suryakumar made his international debut only at the age of 30 in a T20I against England on March 14, 2021. In the years since, he has become a two-time T20 World Cup winner apart from establishing himself as one of India’s greatest batters of all time in the format.
“5 years ago, a dream turned into reality. Wearing the India jersey is a feeling I can still never fully put into words… Here’s to many more memories that we’re going to create…” said Suryakumar in the post.
5 years ago, a dream turned into reality. Wearing the India jersey is a feeling I can still never fully put into words 🇮🇳
Here’s to many more memories that we’re going to create, for team 🇮🇳
— Surya Kumar Yadav (@surya_14kumar)
Suryakumar has played a total of 113 T20Is in which he has scored 3272 runs at an average of 36.35 and strike rate of 162.94 with four centuries and 25 half-centuries. This makes him India’s third highest run scorer of all time in the format, only behind Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Suryakumar’s four centuries is also the second most in T20Is, only behind the five scored by Rohit and .
He was an integral part of the Indian team that won the 2024 T20 World Cup under Rohit, famously taking a sensational boundary-riding catch in the last over of the final that dismissed the dangerous David Miller. With Rohit and Kohli retirning from the format after that, Suryakumar was made India’s T20I captain. He has led the team 52 T20Is, winning 40 of these matches while losing just eight matches, this boasting a win percentage of 76.94.
He is also the first player to score T20I centuries in four different countries, having got one each in India, South Africa, England and New Zealand. In 2022, Suryakumar scored 1164 runs in 31 matches at a strike rate of 187.43 and average of 46.56. It was the first time an Indian had scored more than 1000 runs in a calendar year in men’s T20Is.
