Suryakumar Yadav may be among the runs in T20Is in 2026, but Sanjay Manjrekar isn’t a fan of the Indian captain’s approach with the bat in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. As India look to defend their crown on home soil, Suryakumar and the hosts have seemingly gone back on their attacking template and have become more cautious with their approach.
The Indian skipper came in clutch for India during the USA game, taking his time with the bat in Mumbai to ensure the hosts survived a batting collapse against the associate nation. However, this template has continued in India’s remaining group stage matches, with Suryakumar scoring 162 runs from four matches at a strike-rate of 136.13. While India has remained unbeaten in group games, Manjrekar said that the skipper is taking his defensive approach a bit too far at the moment.
The former cricketer feels that when Suryakumar tries to take the game deep, it doesn’t allow for the proper utilisation of players like Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya and Rinku Singh.
“There’s something I’m seeing in Suryakumar Yadav, which I’m not liking too much. 77 for 6, India against USA at Wankhede. And Suryakumar Yadav had to change his game, which he did brilliantly. Just slowed down a little bit and then exploded and got a great score, player of the match and everything. Since then, I think he’s taking that a bit too far. Against Pakistan, when India lost a couple of wickets, he really pulled down the shutters quite a lot,” Manjrekar said in a video he shared on Instagram.
“He and Tilak Varma, both playing slightly conservatively. And in the end, what happens is people like Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, and Rinku Singh are not really tapped into as resources as much. In T20 cricket, that’s a dangerous thing to do, when a senior player or a captain feels that he’s got to stay in, especially batting first,” he added.
‘A DANGEROUS TACTIC’
Manjrekar feels that Suryakumar’s approach will be a dangerous tactic especially when India has depth in their batting and is looking to set targets of 200-plus.
“When you’re setting targets of 200 plus, winning scores, if you have somebody in the top four who believes that he’s the guy who’s got to control the innings and make sure that he’s the one who’ll take India to a certain score, that is a very dangerous tactic. And considering that India have such fantastic players with Axar Patel at number eight or Washington Sundar at number eight, no batter must think like that,” said Manjrekar.
The former cricketer said that Suryakumar needs to trust the batters after him and ensure he can maximise the scoring when he is out in the middle.
“He must trust the batters to come in after him and try and maximise returns every ball that he faces. When you have such depth in your batting, I don’t think one batter, a single batter, should play in with this feeling that he’s got to control the innings. That is the danger where you’ll bat first and just not get enough runs on the board because you’ve just played too conservatively and there are wickets in hand, but you’ve not used your resources, and you’ve just got 180 runs against a strong chasing team. So, Surya has got to be careful about that,” said Manjrekar.
India will face South Africa in Ahmedabad on Sunday, February 22.
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