Twenty20 vision: SKY the limit after India’s Gill course correction

Twenty20 vision: SKY the limit after India’s Gill course correction Premium In its bid to win the format’s pinnacle event back to back, the team management has resorted to a last-ditch reshuffle at the top. Dropping the Test and ODI captain is a tacit admission that the think tank’s strategy was not quite in order. But despite the drastic measure and T20I skipper Suryakumar’s poor form, the squad has the batting muscle and bowling venom to defend its title Published - December 27, 2025 03:01 am IST Vivek Krishnan READ LATER SEE ALL Remove Dominant force: In 18 months since the 2024 T20 World Cup, India has won 29 and lost just five of 36 T20Is. | Photo Credit: Getty Images Eight editions of the T20 World Cup have followed 2007’s inaugural spectacle. Not once in all these years has a team lifted the sleek, silver-plated prize in successive campaigns — a fair reflection of the challenge of attaining consistency in a format inclined to fickleness. Can India buck the trend? Can the two-time champion, on the back of winning the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, manage another serious tilt at the title on home turf? ALSO READ | P ersistence outlasts rejection for Sanju Samson Stacking wins The results since that heady afternoon in Bridgetown have provided little reason to doubt India’s credentials. A change of captain and coach from Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid to Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir unfolded soon afterwards, but victories have continued to stack up at an impressive rate in the 18 months since the previous iteration. Of its 36 T20Is this cycle, India has won 29 (two in Super Overs) and lost just five (two no-results). Furthermore, it has won all seven bilateral series. At September’s eight-team Asia Cup in the UAE, Suryakumar and Co. stitched together an undefeated run. Those are among the good bits. With just five T20Is against New Zealand to go before India’s T20 World Cup campaign kicks off on February 7, what has not been so good is the form of the captain, who has scored a meagre 448 runs in 31 matches at 17.92 since taking the reins. Suryakumar’s last half-century (75 vs. Bangladesh) dates back to October 12, 2024. The 35-year-old’s pedigree isn’t up for debate. He is one of only four batters to amass four or more T20I centuries and has won the ICC T20I Cricketer of the Year award twice (2022, 2023). At his free-flowing best, he has an inimitable repertoire of strokes that accesses every nook and cranny of the outfield, and he is as adept at attacking pace as he is at dismantling spin. ALSO READ | Class is useful, but form is everything in a T20 team Even so, his lean stretch has gone on for far too long to not arouse concerns. True to Suryakumar’s easy-going demeanour, he took pointed queries on the chin during the announcement of India’s T20 World Cup squad. “ Ye waala patch...

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