Suryakumar Yadav is the captain of the Indian cricket team in the T20I format, but he remains out of the picture in ODI and Test cricket. While he is one of the best batters in the shortest format, Suryakumar's stats in the other two are poor. He has played 37 ODIs, scoring 773 runs at an average of 25.76. In his only Test match, the player scored just eight runs. He believes that his poor performance in ODIs is the reason he was not considered for captaincy and it was instead handed to Shubman Gill from Rohit Sharma.
"Apne numbers itne bekaar hain ODI mein (My ODI stats are so poor)! They gave me so many opportunities. I got to play 25-30 matches. And if I couldn't grab an opportunity even after this, it means there is something definitely going wrong," Suryakumar told News 24 Sports.
Rohit Sharma quit Test cricket in May this year, ahead of the England Test series. After his departure, Gill was handed the captaincy duties in the format. As India geared up for the upcoming white-ball tour to Australia, Gill was also named the ODI captain.
"Now I think that if I had done well in the ODI format, just like how T20I captaincy is going now, I could have got the ODI captaincy as well. I'm thinking about it now. Earlier, I didn't think about it. Because the format is 30 overs longer. The ball colour is the same. The jersey is almost the same. Even now, I will try. I'll give it my 100 percent. It's always been a dream," said Suryakumar.
"When we are at home, we discuss this a lot. I talk to my wife about it, saying that if I had done well in ODI cricket, you never know. When Rohit bhai (brother) retires from ODI captaincy, who will lead then? If you are performing well, you can be a good contender. But even now, the opportunity in ODI cricket hasn't come yet," he added.
India play a three-match ODI series against Australia, starting October 19. This will be followed by a five-match T20I series.