Indian cricket team skipper Suryakumar Yadav demoted himself to No. 11 in a bizarre move during the Asia Cup 2025 match against Oman on Friday. Opting to bat, India decided to give every one of their batters a chance to play with SKY pushing himself down the order. Sanju Samson was sent at No. 3 followed by Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube. Tilak Varma, who normally bats at No. 3, was demoted to No. 7 but there was still no sign of SKY. Ultimately, India lost eight wickets with SKY not facing a single delivery. The decision left social media split with some pointing out that other batters needed practice while some accusing SKY of disrespecting cricket and even trying to act 'oversmart'.
Coming to the match, India beat Oman by 21 runs after the ICC associate member nation put up a spirited show with the bat in the last group league fixture of the Asia Cup on Friday.
Sanju Samson struck a 45-ball 56 and Abhishek Sharma provided the early momentum with a 15-ball 38 as India scored 188 for eight.
In reply, Oman gave a good account of themselves before ending at 167 for four in their allotted quota of 20 overs.
Aamir Kaleem made a valiant 64 off 46 balls while adding 56 runs with skipper Jatinder Singh (32 off 33 balls) and 93 runs with Hammad Mirza, who slammed 51 off 33 balls.
However, the target of 189 proved to be too much for Oman as India entered the Super 4s with three wins in as many matches.
Meanwhile, Arshdeep Singh became the first Indian bowler to reach 100 wickets in men's T20 Internationals when he dismissed Vinayak Shukla in the last over of the match.
(With PTI inputs)