A cricketer should be judged by on-field performance and not by age, T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav said at an Express Adda on Friday. His comments came ahead of India’s three-match ODI series in Australia from October 19, which features two former captains Rohit Sharma, who is 38 years old, and Virat Kohli, who is 36. There is uncertainty whether the two veterans will be selected for the 50-over World Cup in 2027.
When asked if there is extra scrutiny on players like Rohit and Virat because of their age, Suryakumar, who was in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director of The Indian Express Group, and Devendra Pandey, deputy associate editor, said: “According to me, age is just a number. If you are scoring runs and doing everything your team wants, then it is just a number.
I was reading about James Anderson recently. He is 45-46 right now (Anderson is 43 years old) now, and he recently renewed his contract with Lancashire. So I think age is just a number. If you are doing well… then it is in your hands how long you want to play,” Suryakumar, 35, said.
Both Rohit and Virat play only ODIs. While Suryakumar leads the T20 side, the ODI and Test teams are captained by 26-year-old Shubman Gill.
Asked if he felt Gill, nearly 10 years his junior, was snapping at his heels, the T20 captain admitted that the fear does motivate him to do better but he is happy Gill is being given responsibility.
“I won’t lie, everyone feels that fear. But it is the kind of fear that keeps you motivated. The camaraderie between me and him (Gill) is amazing off the field and on it. I know what kind of player and human he is. So it just motivates me to do well,” Suryakumar said.
“If I was so afraid, then when I made my debut… the first ball, you know what happened (a pull shot off Jofra Archer for a six). I believe if I really work hard and I am honest to myself then rest will be taken care of. I am happy for him (Gill), he has become captain in two formats. He has done really well,” Suryakumar said.
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Speaking about the other decision-maker in the dressing room — coach Gautam Gambhir — Suryakumar said, “Our relationship is that of elder and younger brothers.”
“I played for four years under him at KKR (in IPL). I learnt a lot from him there. Now, life has come full circle. So when we discuss squads, a lot of the time, it happens that he picks an eleven, and I pick my eleven; there are absolutely no differences. 99 per cent the same. On the ground also if I want to make a decision, a lot of things are going on in my mind and I look at the dugout for a helping hand. Because you see things differently from outside, and he just gives a signal, and then I don’t even think… That is the trust we have between us. Touchwood, it’s going really well and may it continue,” he said.
Before joining the IPL team Mumbai Indians in 2018, Suryakumar had a stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders from 2014-17 when Gambhir was the coach. The duo reunited as captain-coach post India’s T20 World Cup triumph last year.
Asked how he remains calm and collected on the field irrespective of success or failure, Suryakumar credited his family, small circle of old friends and his wife for keeping him grounded.
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“I am blessed to have a lovely family and few of the good friends who are still in contact with me, who always kept me grounded and humble. Family played a big role and even Devisha (wife). When I go back home after scoring a lot of runs or even not scoring any runs, she is always the same. Whenever I am about to enter a room, in a hotel or the house, she is like ‘you scored runs?… leave that bit outside. ‘You didn’t score runs’… let that also be outside.
“Whenever I enter the house there is no conversation about cricket. It is all about family, what we want to do. Everything is normal at home. That has kept me grounded all the time,” he said.
In fact, Suryakumar said his wife had a “big role to play” in his progress from a ‘Mumbai cricketer’ to an ‘India cricketer’. “My wife’s number is saved (in phone contacts) as ‘the best decision of my life’. See all the husbands in the crowd are applauding,” he said.
Suryakumar also spoke about why Mumbai Indians retains its core group of players, some of the biggest names in the game, and also credited the team for moulding him into the player he is today.
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“We call it one family, because we feel like that when we enter the dressing room… a hotel… any practice session. Like you rightly said, all the players are capable of leading any other franchise or any other team in the world but there is an X-factor… only if you are part of the team (MI) can you feel it. Makes you ready for bigger occasions, helps you when things are not going your way. I learnt a lot in the MI dressing room. The Suryakumar Yadav of 2021 to 2025 that you see now is a product of 2018, 2019 and 2020 of MI,” he said.
