Suryakumar Yadav, who was recently sacked as India’s T20I captain, broke his silence on the new development and also reacted to Shreyas Iyer replacing him.

Shreyas Iyer will captain a full-strength India squad in Ireland and England, a precursor to the Asian Games T20s in Japan. He replaces Suryakumar Yadav, who has been dropped.

Iyer led Kolkata Knight Riders to a third IPL title in 2024 before guiding Punjab Kings to the final in 2025.

Yadav’s reign comes to an end due to poor form in both IPL and international cricket.

India will play two T20s in Ireland on June 26 and 28, and another five in England next month.

“I am happy for Shreyas Iyer as he is the new captain of the Indian T20I team. We have played our cricket together in Mumbai, and it is amazing that the last three T20 captains of India have come from Mumbai,” Suryakumar Yadav said.

The selection panel, headed by Ajit Agarkar, took a surprising decision of dropping Suryakumar Yadav from the squad despite the middle-order batter leading the team to success in the 2026 T20 World Cup. The selectors are thinking about the  2028 Olympics and the T20 World Cup.

Suryakumar Yadav’s form hasn’t been impressive, and his ordinary display with the bat forced the selectors to move on from him.

On the other hand, Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy track record in the Indian Premier League worked in his favour. His last T20I came in 2023, and the batter was not even considered for the global tournament at home.

He led the Kolkata Knight Riders to their third IPL trophy in 2024, and then the Punjab Kings made it to the final under his leadership in 2025. Iyer has been scoring his runs at a strike rate of over 160 in the last two seasons.

Suryakumar Yadav wanted to win the gold medal in the Olympics. He had opened up on his next goal after winning the World Cup this year.

“My next goal is the gold medal in the Olympics and the T20 World Cup,” Suryakumar Yadav had said. However, he is unlikely to get a chance of fulfilling his dream after his exclusion from the national team.

He was handed the captaincy after Rohit Sharma’s retirement following the Men in Blue’s triumph in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Under him, India dominated the rivals in T20I cricket, winning every series in which he led the team.

India’s T20I team

Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma (vc), Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakaravarthy, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.