“There was just minor differences between the two teams,” Suryakumar said in an interview with PTI when asked to compare the 2024 and 2026 sides. “That was an experienced team, and very committed. This team is passionate. This year, I can say that we had less experience but more enthusiasm. All the guys are 25 to 27 years old [actually ten of the 15 players in the side that won the tournament were over 27, and nine over 30].
“It was necessary to explain to them how it feels to win a World Cup in India, when people will cheer so much for you, 50,000 people, a lakh people, in the stadium.”
‘Nobody likes to lose’ – Suryakumar on his 80% success rate as T20I captain
India have now won 42 of the 52 T20Is Suryakumar has led them in, giving him a 80.76% success rate. That percentage, Suryakumar said, had made up for his lack of success in academics. His father, Ashok Kumar Yadav, was an electrical engineer at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, but academics never interested Suryakumar.
“I feel that the percentage I tried to achieve in school and college by studying, I’m getting that today in cricket here,” he said. “There, I could never cross [50-60%]. But definitely, it feels good to hear this. Although, I don’t pay much attention to stats. But nobody likes to lose in any game. I also love winning all the games.
“My family tried a lot to educate me first, [but] in a short time they got the idea that this boy is not interested in studies. This boy can’t be controlled. But their support was always there in sports because they could see that I was enjoying it, I liked playing. So they said, ‘okay, go play; if nothing happens later, then we are here to take care of it’.”
‘How do you plan to play for India?’
Suryakumar made his first-class, List A and T20 debuts in 2010, all for Mumbai, but it took him until 2021 to make his international debut, first in T20Is and then in ODIs. There have been 37 ODIs, but the last of those were in November 2023. A Test career came and went too, lasting just one game, where he scored 8 in his only innings. It’s in T20Is, though, that Suryakumar has made his name. In 113 games, he has 3272 runs, his 360-degree game giving him a strike rate of 162.94.
But the fact that he needed to raise his game to play for India after playing domestically and in the IPL for years was only driven home by his wife, Devisha, Suryakumar said.
“It was a nice little conversation with her, not an argument but discussion. But yes, it was a discussion about how can you take one extra step forward in your endeavour. If I want to play for India and want to win games for India, how do I do it?”
‘At home, you are not Suryakumar Yadav, so be normal’
A lot changed for Suryakumar after that conversation.
“We had to cut down on a lot of things – from diet to friends circles to weekends, rest on Saturday-Sunday, Monday to Friday work schedule, so we set the ball rolling and in 2018, I had a very good IPL season [512 runs] and also domestic cricket,” he said. “That year, I got a chance to open for Mumbai Indians and I got runs too. Come 2019 and 2020, we kept doing the same thing and I was in a different mood. She saw that I had started enjoying [the game] even more, 2020 was even better [480 runs], and then in 2021, I got picked for India.
“She [Devisha] has been a big influence behind the scenes in telling me honest things. If it is your partner, she will always be honest because all she would want is your growth because if you want to grow together, conversations have to be honest. At times, it has been brutal too, but then it has been good. If I am where I am today, those conversations have gone a long way.
“I give her 100% credit because it is not that she gave me cricketing advice but she told me a lot of things related to life. What do I do? How to approach a certain situation? How do I carry myself?
“She told me to not to carry cricket back home. These were all important things that I learnt. You need to stay humble, grounded irrespective of your achievements. ‘At home, you are not Suryakumar Yadav, so be normal; after having food, keep your plate in the sink’. These little things that add value to your life.”